Climate News from the science press

[macdoc]

from the same article

snip

Loss of sea ice causes major climate change
Continued rapid loss of sea ice will be an important driver of major change in the world's climate system in the years to come.
"While the emerging impact of greenhouse gases is an important factor in the changing Arctic, what was not fully recognised until now is that a combination of an unusual warm period due to natural variability, loss of sea ice reflectivity, ocean heat storage and changing wind patterns working together has disrupted the memory and stability of the Arctic climate system, resulting in greater ice loss than earlier climate models predicted," says Dr Overland.
"The exceptional cold and snowy winter of 2009-2010 in Europe, eastern Asia and eastern North America is connected to unique physical processes in the Arctic," he says.

Irreversible change
The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. This is known as Arctic amplification -- a much debated phenomenon at the IPY-OSC, where 2400 polar scientists have gathered to discuss the huge amount of research and new findings which are the direct result of the International Polar Year.
The changes are happening a great deal faster than the scientific community expected. Given the recent reduction of the area of multi-year sea ice and reduced ice thickness, it is unlikely that the Arctic can return to its previous condition. "The changes are irreversible," says Dr Overland.

If you want to discuss the article then put it in the Climate Science thread which is moderated..instead of >

 

[Cuddles]

As per the previous mod box, this thread is supposed to be for posting news. Decade old scientific papers are not news, and general discussion even less so. Continuing to deliberately post off topic in order to avoid the moderated status of other threads on climate change will result in further action.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: Cuddles

 

[BenBurch]

Faecal attraction: Whale poop fights climate change

http://pda.physorg.com/spermwhales-southernocean-whales_news195848417.html

<SNIP>

In a heroic calculation, Australian biologists estimated that the estimated 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean each defecate around 50 tonnes of iron into the sea every year after digesting the fish and squid they hunt.

<SNIP>

The scientists suspect that because sperm whales cluster in specific areas of the Southern Ocean there is a clear link between food availability and cetacean faeces.

This could explain the "krill paradox," they believe. Researchers have previously found that when balleen whales are killed, the amount of krill in that sea area declines, which thus affects the entire food chain.

<SNIP>

 

[macdoc]

Is it time to say goodbye cool world?

* 15 June 2010 by Fred Pearce, Bonn

What hope is there for a deal on climate change based on science? The answer seems to be "not much".

Climate negotiators meeting over the past two weeks in Bonn, Germany, enjoyed a new spirit of bonhomie as they worked to heal the rifts created by the failure of UN talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, last December. At the close of talks on 11 June, they believed they were back on track to deliver a new climate agreement by the end of 2011.

But diplomatic harmony has come at a price: sacrificing a cool future for planet Earth.

more
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627650.401-is-it-time-to-say-goodbye-cool-world.html

 

[macdoc]

For those interested in Climate Science articles....there are 115 pages of news going back several years now available originally on the now closed Dawkins Science Forum.....

The original 100 pages of Climate News from Dawkin's Science Forums
Part one
http://beyondyourken.com/phoenix/Pages/2184-1.html#p29633

and the most recent 15 pages
Part two
http://beyondyourken.com/phoenix/Pages/74571-1.htm

Much to read.

 

[CapelDodger]

http://pda.physorg.com/spermwhales-southernocean-whales_news195848417.html

"Heroic" is such an excellent choice of word there .

 

[macdoc]

That made me laugh as well....a cute conceit.
Despite the heroism tho...

Ocean Changes May Have Dire Impact on People

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2010) — The first comprehensive synthesis on the effects of climate change on the world's oceans has found they are now changing at a rate not seen for several million years.

continues
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100618103558.htm

 

[macdoc]

The Western Mediterranean Has Warmed for More Than a Century

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2010) — The longest sequences of temperature and salinity data analyzed (from 1900 to present), have confirmed the gradual warming of the waters of the western Mediterranean. The warming has accelerated since the mid 1970's.

more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100618082219.htm

 

[macdoc]

Climate Change Threatens Food Supply of 60 Million People in Asia

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2010) — According to an article by three Utrecht University researchers published in the journal Science on 11 June, climate change will drastically reduce the discharge of snow and ice meltwater in a region of the Himalayas, threatening the food security of more than 60 million people in Asia in the coming decades. The Indus and Brahmaputra basins are expected to be the most adversely affected, while in the Yellow River basin the availability of irrigation water will actually increase.
More than one billion people depend on the meltwater supplied by the Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Yellow River. The snow and ice reserves situated upstream are important in sustaining the availability of water downstream.

more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100616090225.htm

 

[bit_pattern]

A new study on consensus.

New Study Reaffirms Scientific Consensus on Climate Change

A paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) underscores the widespread consensus among climate scientists that human activity is driving climate change. The paper will be available by the end of the day online and is available by emailing the PNAS staff.
The paper, written by William Anderegg, James Prall, Jacob Harold and Stephen Schneider, surveyed the work of 1,372 climate researchers. They found that nearly all published climate scientists agree that human activity is driving climate change. Their findings are consistent with a 2009 survey of scientists' attitudes as well as a 2004 survey of the scientific literature on climate change. The Anderegg et al. paper comes on the heels of a series of NAS reports that underscore the reality of human-induced climate change and the need to respond.
"This study is consistent with other papers that have found a widespread scientific consensus that human activity is driving climate change," said Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). "The biggest wildcard is how much we'll change the future climate, largely due to uncertainty about how much more carbon dioxide we will dump into the atmosphere. It's up to policymakers to act, knowing that heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels are the biggest lever acting on the climate."
A number of surveys have identified a persistent gap between how the public perceives climate science and what scientists know about global warming. Over the last few years, reporters have been giving more credence to contrarian points of view than they deserve, according to UCS. But that might be changing. On June 20, the Sunday Times of London retracted a story that misrepresented science in a story attacking the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Unfortunately, some oil- and coal-industry-funded groups and ideologues are still feeding the public a steady diet of misinformation about climate change," Ekwurzel said. "Americans need to know that their health, their communities and their overall quality of life are all at risk from unchecked climate change. Fortunately, these baseless attacks on science have not stopped governments and businesses from beginning to think about how best to respond to climate change."

 

[BenBurch]

Changing atmosphere increases build-up of space debris

http://pda.physorg.com/spacedebris-debris-atmosphericdensity_news196525719.html

Scientists from the University of Southampton have confirmed a long-term change in the Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes where satellites are operating.

This change, a contraction of the thermosphere, has been attributed to the build-up of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, and is causing satellites - and space debris - to remain in orbit for longer than expected.

Researchers led by Dr Hugh Lewis and Dr Graham Swinerd from the University's School of Engineering Sciences previously showed that this contraction can lead to an increase in collisions between satellites and orbital debris. Now the team has suggested that international efforts to control the growth of space debris may be much less effective in the future if these atmospheric changes continue.

<SNIP>

 

[macdoc]

Adios El Niño, Hello La Niña?

ScienceDaily (June 25, 2010) — The latest image of Pacific Ocean sea surface heights from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 oceanography satellite, dated June 11, 2010, shows that the tropical Pacific has switched from warm (red) to cold (blue) during the last few months.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100624141820.htm

no bad thing in my view

 

[bit_pattern]

no bad thing in my view

It will be highly ironic if we go into an El Nina and still manage to clock the warmest year on record.

 

[macdoc]

La Nina boyo - mixing your kids up... not worry - I get em tangle too.

La Nina - little girl
El Nino xmas child.

http://sparce.evac.ou.edu/q_and_a/el_nino_and_la_nina.htm#names

T[FONT=Times New Roman, Times][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]he origin of the names, La Niña and El Niño
La Niña is sometimes referred to as El Viejo[/FONT] [/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, Times][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]El Niño was originally recognized by fisherman off the coast of South America as the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific ocean, occurring near the beginning of the year. El Niño means The Little Boy or Christ child in Spanish. This name was used for the tendency of the phenomenon to arrive around Christmas. La Niña means The Little Girl. La Niña is sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply "a cold event" or "a cold episode". There has been a confusing range of uses for the terms El Niño, La Niña and ENSO by both the scientific community and the general public, which is clarified in this web page on definitions of the terms ENSO, Southern Oscillation Index, El Niño and La Niña. Also interesting is the Web page Where did the name El Niño come from? An excellent glossary of El Niño terminology has been provided by UCAR.[/FONT] [/FONT]

 

[bit_pattern]

Oh yeah, la is the feminine of el, forgot my basic Spanish there But if we go into an La Nina and still clock a record temperature then it will bode ominously, in much the same way the solar minimum + record temps bodes.

 

[macdoc]

Yup.
There is one idea being put about is that we will see more frequent La Nina's - gonna take a while to tease out that trend but it would mitigate some of the impact of AGW for a bit.....tho regionally the little girl has some consequences all her own.

 

[BenBurch]

Answer to what ended the last ice age may be blowing in the winds, paper says

http://pda.physorg.com/iceage-ice-carbondioxide_news196687173.html

Scientists still puzzle over how Earth emerged from its last ice age, an event that ushered in a warmer climate and the birth of human civilization. In the geological blink of an eye, ice sheets in the northern hemisphere began to collapse and warming spread quickly to the south. Most scientists say that the trigger, at least initially, was an orbital shift that caused more sunlight to fall across Earth's northern half. But how did the south catch up so fast?

In a review paper published this week in the journal Science, a team of researchers look to a global shift in winds for the answer. They propose a chain of events that began with the melting of the large northern hemisphere ice sheets about 20,000 years ago. The melting ice sheets reconfigured the planet's wind belts, pushing warm air and seawater south, and pulling carbon dioxide from the deep ocean into the atmosphere, allowing the planet to heat even further. Their hypothesis makes use of climate data preserved in cave formations, polar ice cores and deep-sea sediments to describe how Earth finally thawed out.

<SNIP>

 

[BenBurch]

Aggressive action to reduce soot emissions needed to meet climate change goals

http://pda.physorg.com/blackcarbon-carbon-soot_news196687498.html

Without aggressive action to reduce soot emissions, the time table for carbon dioxide emission reductions may need to be significantly accelerated in order to achieve international climate policy goals such as those set forth in last December's Copenhagen Accord, according to "Assessing the climatic benefits of black carbon mitigation," a study published online June 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The Princeton University researchers assessed the climatic contribution of "carbonaceous aerosols," fine particulates emitted into the atmosphere and commonly known as soot. Soot is produced by the incomplete combustion of organic matter and comes from a variety of sources, ranging from diesel engines and coal combustion to biomass cook stoves, crop burning and wildfires.

Soot has complex effects on the global climate when airborne or deposited on snow. It has two main components: black carbon and organic carbon. Black carbon is dark and absorbs radiation, thus warming the atmosphere; organic carbon is light colored and reflective, so tends to have a cooling effect. Their effects on climate are complicated, in part because they depend on how they are mixed with other particles in the atmosphere, and in part because both types of aerosols can cool the climate through their effects on cloud formation. Black carbon also warms the Earth's surface when it is falls out of the atmosphere and lands on snow or ice, darkening it.

<SNIP>

 

[BenBurch]

Carbon sequestration: Boon or burden

http://pda.physorg.com/carbonsequestration-leakage-carbon_news196856250.html

The idea to sequester carbon is gaining support as a way to avoid global warming. For example, the European Union plans to invest billions of Euros within the next ten years to develop carbon capture and storage whereby CO2 will be extracted at power plants and other combustion sites and stored underground. But how effective is this procedure and what are the long-term consequences of leakage for the oceans and climate? A Niels Bohr Institute researcher has now cast light upon these issues. This research has just been published in the scientific journal, Nature Geoscience.

Large scale use of carbon sequestration could help to avoid extreme global warming that would otherwise occur in the near future unless fossil fuel emissions are reduced significantly. But it is not clear how effective different types of sequestration are in the long run, owing to leakage of stored CO2 back out to the atmosphere. Nor is it clear what would be the long-term consequences of such leakage for the Earth's environment.

Gary Shaffer, professor at the Niels Bohr Institute, and leader of the Danish Center for Earth System Science, made long model projections for a number of sequestration/leakage scenarios. His results show that leakage of the stored CO2 may bring about large atmosphere warming, large sea level rise and oxygen depletion, acidification and elevated CO2 concentrations in the ocean.

<SNIP>

 

[BenBurch]

Sea Ice in the Arctic Not Recovering: Another Critical Minimum Forecast

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100624112306.htm

ScienceDaily (June 24, 2010) — A critical minimum for Arctic sea ice can again be expected for late summer 2010, according to researchers.

Scientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association (AWI) in Bremerhaven and from KlimaCampus of the University of Hamburg have now published data in this context in the annual issue of Sea Ice Outlook. The online publication compares the forecasts on ice cover for September 2010 prepared by around a dozen international research institutes in a scientific "competition." The ice reaches its minimum area at this time every year.

<SNIP>

Although Arctic ice currently has an area of ten million km2, which is half a million km2 smaller than in 2007, one cannot directly conclude a new record minimum in late summer. The present ice cover is comparable to that in June 2006, a year when more ice area remained in September than in 2007. The decisive factors for the situation in late summer, such as the ice thickness in the central Arctic and further development of the weather in summer, are not yet known, however.

<SNIP>