Climate News from the science press

[macdoc]

Outlines the urgency and scale of the issues at Copenhagen..

Countdown to Copenhagen

Keith Kloor
It seems like yesterday when everyone was downplaying expectations for success at next week’s climate summit in Copenhagen. Not anymore. Nicholas Stern writes in the Guardian:

“Given what is at stake, essentially the future peace and prosperity of the planet, world leaders must now recognise that Copenhagen is the most important international gathering of our time. A strong political agreement can and must be reached in Copenhagen. There can be no excuses for failure.”​

Although a legally binding treaty has been taken off the table, Bill McKibben over at Yale Environment 360 takes stock of the thorny issues that still need to be resolved to reach any such political agreement. Among them:

“How do you draw something up that doesn’t require treaty approval by the U.S. Senate (no one thinks there are 67 votes for a real climate policy)? How do you give credit for actions already taken? How do you keep carbon trading from turning into one more Wall Street boondoggle?”​

James Hansen, for his part, continues to insist that cap and trade is an “inefficient compromise” and that governments going to Copenhagen are “lying through their teeth” if they say otherwise. In Grist, Hansen writes that climate negotiators need to solve one main equation:

“Unless they order Russia to leave its gas in the ground and Saudi Arabia to leave its oil in the ground (which nobody has proposed), they must phase out coal and prohibit unconventional fossil fuels.”​

Over on Scientific American, physicist Myles Allen of the University of Oxford, concurs:

"Any credible plan for avoiding dangerous climate change will have to address the question of what India, China, Russia and the U.S. are going to do with the coal they have underground that we cannot afford for them to release into the atmosphere. If they are not going to use that coal, ever, then who is going to compensate them for the benefits lost? And if they are going to use it, then who is going to pay for its carbon content to be sequestered?”​

Continue reading "Countdown to Copenhagen " »

http://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/

 

[BenBurch]

Reporters document Antarctica changes

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/12/01/Reporters-document-Antarctica-changes/UPI-52701259678044/

WOODS HOLE, Mass., Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Three journalists are at the Palmer Research Station in Antarctica this week to document signs of climate change.

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"The Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than anywhere else on Earth," Neill said. "Average temperature has warmed 6 degrees Fahrenheit since 1950. Winter temperature has warmed even more, a shocking 11 degrees Fahrenheit. The amount of sea ice along the western Antarctic Peninsula has declined 40 percent and ice cover is 80 days shorter, compared with 25 years ago.

"The rapid loss of ice at the ends of the world will very well be the story of the century," Neill added. "If the Earth loses too much ice, we tumble headlong into uncharted territory."

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[Wangler]

Kuwait Bay warmer

Kuwait Bay sea temperature rising quickly:

British scientists say the water temperature of Kuwait Bay in the northern Arabian Gulf has increased three times faster than the global average since 1985.

...

The researchers estimate about a third of the observed increase in Kuwait Bay's water temperature can be attributed to global climate change, approximately 13 percent to human activity along the coast, with the remainder apparently due to changes in regional drivers, including circulation and mixing of seawater in the Arabian Gulf and sand storms.

I wonder if the changes in regional drivers are entirely due to natural causes? If so, these localized regional drivers exceed the expected warming from global climate, and localized man-made activity along the coast.

 

[BenBurch]

Kuwait Bay sea temperature rising quickly:



I wonder if the changes in regional drivers are entirely due to natural causes? If so, these localized regional drivers exceed the expected warming from global climate, and localized man-made activity along the coast.

I think we will find a tangle of reasons.

 

[BenBurch]

Antarctica served as climatic refuge in Earth's greatest extinction event

http://pda.physorg.com/fieldmuseum-massextinction-extinction_news179001673.html

A new fossil species suggests that some land animals may have survived the end-Permian extinction by living in cooler climates in Antarctica.
Researchers have identified a distant relative of mammals that apparently survived the mass extinction by living in Antarctica.

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The largest known mass extinction in Earth's history, about 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period, may have been caused by global warming. A new fossil species suggests that some land animals may have survived the end-Permian extinction by living in cooler climates in Antarctica. Jörg Fröbisch and Kenneth D. Angielczyk of The Field Museum together with Christian A. Sidor from the University of Washington have identified a distant relative of mammals, Kombuisia antarctica, that apparently survived the mass extinction by living in Antarctica.

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Scientists are still debating what caused the end-Permian extinction, but it was likely associated with massive volcanic activity in Siberia that could have triggered global warming. When it served as refuge, Antarctica was located some distance north of its present location, was warmer and wasn't covered with permanent glaciers, said the researchers. The refuge of Kombuisia in Antarctica probably wasn't the result of a seasonal migration but rather a longer-term change that saw the animal's habitat shift southward. Fossil evidence suggests that small and medium sized animals were more successful at surviving the mass extinction than larger animals. They may have engaged in "sleep-or-hide" behaviors like hibernation, torpor and burrowing to survive in a difficult environment.

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[Zeuzzz]

Random question: How much does CO2 actually factor in to global temparature? Because there seems to be an awful lot of focus on this and not so much on other greenhouse gasses.

 

[BenBurch]

Random question: How much does CO2 actually factor in to global temparature? Because there seems to be an awful lot of focus on this and not so much on other greenhouse gasses.

Its the one gas that does not leave the atmosphere quickly (barring a few industrial chemicals that are present in small amounts) and it drives the rest like water vapor and methane by keeping heat in the system.

But this topic is for news, please create another to discuss this question if you want to proceed with it, OK?

 

[Zeuzzz]

£4m climate change study launched

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8381744.stm

£4m climate change study launched


Waves batter the harbour wall on November 22, 2009 in Porthcawl, Wales
The work of C3W will include looking at sea level change

A five-year programme to study the impact of climate change in Wales on land, sea and atmosphere is under way.

Nearly 200 experts at Cardiff Aberystwyth, Bangor, and Swansea universities will be members of the £4m Climate Change Consortium or C3W.

The consortium will examine the effects of climate change on the planet's ice and glaciers.

It will also look at the social effects of climate change and how to engage the public with the issue.

Aberystwyth University's Professor Mike Hambrey, an expert in glaciers and the acting director of C3W, said the group was made up of climate and social scientists with shared concerns.

He said: "We're all joined together because we have deep concerns about the issue of climate change and want to do something constructive about it."

They would be tackling four "grand challenges," he said.

 

[BenBurch]

A journey through the Earth's climate history

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2009/copenhagen/8386319.stm

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The layers of ice laid down each year in Antarctica and Greenland store a record of the Earth's climate. Bubbles of air trapped in the ice as it froze can be analysed to give details on temperature at the time it froze, and on atmospheric concentrations of gases.

The oldest ice core so far extracted belongs to the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica). It allows scientists to look back 800,000 years.

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The data, for the animation above, on temperature and carbon dioxide for the 800,000 year time period is taken from the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, Epica. The data can be downloaded using the link on the right and was complied by Dr Robert Mulvaney of the British Antarctic Survey.

LINK: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/news/nol/shared/spl/hi/uk/09/bbc_online/800000.xls

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[BenBurch]

ARS Explores Ways to Keep Carbon in the Soil

http://pda.physorg.com/soil-winterwheat-carbon_news179058963.html

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are testing out alternative ways of tilling the soil and rotating crops to see if they can help wheat farmers in Oregon sequester more carbon in the soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Soil organic carbon plays a major role in how well a cultivated field holds moisture, provides nutrients and remains productive. That can be a problem in eastern Oregon because the soils are relatively low in organic carbon. Wheat farmers there traditionally plant winter wheat one year and leave the field fallow for a season, using traditional methods to plow before planting.

Hero Gollany, a soil scientist at the ARS Columbia Plateau Conservation Research Center in Pendleton, Ore., is looking at three scenarios that may help. In one field, she is comparing levels of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide emissions released from the traditional 2-year rotation with an alternative 3-year cycle of no-till winter wheat, followed by a second crop of no-till winter wheat, followed by sorghum. She is measuring residue yields, soil conditions, and greenhouse gas emissions, taking measurements throughout the year. Because precipitation usually increases nitrous oxide emissions, she also collects data after any rain or snowfall.

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[BenBurch]

CO2 levels rising in troposphere over rural areas

http://pda.physorg.com/levels-rural-atmosphere_news179059890.html

Spanish researchers have measured CO2 levels for the past three years in the troposphere (lower atmosphere) over a sparsely inhabited rural area near Valladolid. The results, which are the first of their kind in the Iberian Peninsula, show that the levels rose "significantly" between 2002 and 2005.

Over recent years, physicists and meteorologists have been trying to find out about carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and how these have evolved in the troposphere over various urban and rural areas around the planet. Now a scientific team from the University of Valladolid (UVA) has published the first - and to date the only - measurements for the Iberian Peninsula.

The study, published in the latest issue of the journal Theoretical and Applied Climatology and led by Mª Luisa Sánchez, a researcher from the UVA's Atmospheric Pollution Group, shows that CO2 levels increased by 8 ppm (parts per million) between 2002 and 2005. A broader study has led the researchers to predict "an annual increase of 3 ppm" in the study area.

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[lomiller]

This looks promising

http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=56b56fc929eb0e36ed13f9567bbca539

A unique electricity generation process uses natural gas and solid oxide fuel cells at high electrical efficiency (74%HHV) and zero atmospheric emissions. The process contains a steam reformer heat-integrated with the fuel cells to provide the heat necessary for reforming. The fuel cells are powered with H2 and avoid carbon deposition issues. 100% CO2 capture is achieved downstream of the fuel cells with very little energy penalty using a multi-stage flash cascade process, where high-purity water is produced as a side product. Alternative reforming techniques such as CO2 reforming, autothermal reforming, and partial oxidation are considered. The capital and energy costs of the proposed process are considered to determine the levelized cost of electricity, which is low when compared to other similar carbon capture-enabled processes.

 

[BenBurch]

Elevated CO2 levels may mitigate losses of biodiversity from nitrogen pollution

http://pda.physorg.com/carbondioxide-nitrogen-diversity_news179074615.html

Finally something at least slightly positive...

Rising levels of carbon dioxide may overheat the planet and cause other environmental problems, but fears that rising CO2 levels could directly reduce plant biodiversity can be allayed, according to a new study by a University of Minnesota scientist Peter Reich. In fact, rising CO2 may actually help counteract losses of diversity from another environmental villain: the global rain of nitrogen from fertilizers and exhaust fumes.

The study, published in this week's edition of Science magazine, involved a 10-year open-air outdoor experiment in which 48 plots planted with 16 different species of plants were tested using ambient and elevated levels of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Researchers measured the number of species observed in each plot, the plant biomass both above and below ground, as well as factors related to soil, water and light that might affect plant growth.

Over time, the diversity of plants growing in the research plots changed significantly, depending on the combinations of plants and the way added CO2 and nitrogen affected the health of different species. One of the study's key findings is that while the combination of ambient carbon dioxide and nitrogen pollution reduces species richness by 16 percent, adding more CO2 to the mix reduces that change by half.

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[BenBurch]

Carbon and oxygen in tree rings can reveal past climate information

http://pda.physorg.com/treering-trees-tree_news179073024.html

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Scientists have long looked at the width of tree rings to estimate temperature levels of past years. Larger rings indicate more tree growth in a season, which translates into warmer summer temperatures. But the analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes in tree rings can also provide accurate data on past climate events, say researchers working in northern Canada.

In a paper published in the most recent issue of the journal of Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research, Trevor Porter, a PhD student in Geography and Environmental Science at Carleton University, and three other authors compared temperature data collected in Inuvik, Northwest Territories (NT) since 1957 with their own analysis of isotopes found in white spruce trees in the Mackenzie Delta region of the NT. They found a strong correlation between the two data sets and temperatures.

"Isotope analysis is a good way to measure past climate change," says Porter about the results.

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[shadron]

I don't suppose that this is "scientific press", but I think it belongs here:

WWF, Allianze estimate what it could cost NOT to take action on climate change

A new report from the World Wildlife Fund and European insurance giant Allianz SE says that close to $1.4 trillion in “assets” could be at risk from a severe storm surge. Moreover, by mid-century, their joint study predicts that up to $7.4 trillion could be in jeopardy if the global sea level rises 20 inches.

http://www.smartplanet.com/business...st-not-to-take-action-on-climate-change/3391/

 

[macdoc]

British bird's rapid evolution signals human impact

Warming of British Isles, along with feeding of the blackcap, has led to changes in the warbler's beak size and wing shape in just a few decades

Last updated on Thursday, Dec. 03, 2009 6:50PM EST

Feeding the birds is the most innocuous of pastimes, but it could have a unintended effect: changing the course of evolution.

Researchers have discovered that the enthusiasm of many Britons for feeding birds in winter and the gradual warming of the British Isles due to climate change have helped change the appearance of the blackcap, a warbler as commonly recognized in European gardens as robins are in North America.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...volution-signals-human-impact/article1387804/

 

[macdoc]

This is the kind of hands on field work I admire....good for him.....

snip

From The Times
December 5, 2009

Scientist’s Himalayan mission provides unwelcome proof: glaciers are dying

Jeremy Page, South Asia Correspondent

Inching over the treacherous surface of the Rathong glacier, almost 5,000 metres (16,400ft) high in the eastern Himalayas, Dr Shresth Tayal stooped to inspect a 7m steel rod he buried vertically in the ice six months ago.

After a decade studying Himalayan glaciers, he had expected to find at least half the rod exposed — an alarming enough indication of how fast the Rathong is melting — but even he was surprised by what he found last week.

“Six metres in six months,” he cried, breathing hard in the thin mountain air as The Times and the rest of his team stepped gingerly between hidden crevasses and gushing rivulets of freshly melted ice.

“It’s pathetic,” he said. “The glacier is dying.”

more

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/ne...n/article6945249.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=3392178

 

[BenBurch]

The energy required to melt all that ice is staggering.

 

[Wangler]

Here is an interesting one about carbon uptake in the oceans:

Reconstruction of the history of anthropogenic CO2 concentrations in the ocean

They say that carbon uptake has been increasing in a pattern that matches the increase in atmospheric CO2.

Obviously, the amount of uptake is much less than the increases in atmospheric increase, otherwise the CO2 ppm plot would eventually level out.

I think their point, though, is to demonstrate that oceanic uptake of CO2 has not reached a plateau yet.

 

[Wangler]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...volution-signals-human-impact/article1387804/

Glad were helping! From the link:

"If winters had been colder and bird feeders didn't exist, these wayward birds would have soon died due to starvation and inhospitable weather, but they thrived and now amount to about 10 per cent of the blackcap population."

You are welcome, little birdies!