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Climate News from the science press

Wangler said:
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.
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And that's actually bad news. Oceanic acidification is not good. It's going to target a lot of critters. It has the potential to be very, very bad.
 
Cat ....meet pidgeons.....wow that's some info release :boggled:

snip

Earth More Sensitive to Carbon Dioxide Than Previously Thought



ScienceDaily (Dec. 6, 2009) — In the long term, the Earth's temperature may be 30-50% more sensitive to atmospheric carbon dioxide than has previously been estimated, reports a new study published in Nature Geoscience.
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Thanks for that :thumbsup:
 
Study: Slowdown in warming last year not permanent

http://pda.physorg.com/warming-globalwarming-climatechange_news179159979.html

<SNIP>

Rising temperatures over decades have prompted scientific concern, and the last decade has been the hottest in thousands of years, according to climate records. However, the warming eased over North America last year, and groups seeking to deny climate change seized on that in an effort to challenge the idea of overall warming.

North America wasn't as warm as expected because of cooler water in the North Pacific - a condition called La Nina - but the rest of the world continued to warm, researchers said Friday. The overall warming trend is expected to continue worldwide.

La Nina caused cold air from the Arctic to move south into North America, temporarily overwhelming the warming influence from climate change in the region, said Judith Perlwitz of the University of Colorado, lead author of the report being published next week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

<SNIP>
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/en...ias-UN-global-warning-body-says-chairman.html

Leaked climate change emails 'won't bias UN global warning body' says chairman

The leaked emails from the University of East Anglia will not affect the UN's advice on global warning, said Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN's climate change body.

Mr Pachauri said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) received contributions from scientists worldwide and had a rigorous peer review system which ensured a balanced view.

"The processes in the IPCC are so robust, so inclusive, that even if an author or two has a particular bias it is completely unlikely that bias will find its way into the IPCC report," he told The Guardian.

His comments came after the apparent suggestion in the leaked emails that work on climate change which the scientists did not agree with was not included in the IPCC's fourth assessment report, published in 2007.

Mr Pachauri was asked about a 2004 email in which Professor Phil Jones, head of climatic research at UEA, is alleged to have commented on two papers which he considered to be flawed.

Prof Jones allegedly wrote: "I can't see either... being in the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

"Kevin [Trenberth] and I will keep them out somehow - even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

Thousands of emails and documents allegedly stolen from the UEA were posted online which indicated that researchers had massaged figures to mask the fact that world temperatures have been declining in recent years. [....]
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56 Papers in 45 Countries Publish Joint Editorial

By E&P Staff

Published: December 06, 2009 7:10 PM ET
NEW YORK Tomorrow 56 newspapers in 45 countries take the perhaps unprecedented step of speaking with one voice through a common editorial. Many if not most will publish it on the front page, warning of a "profound emergency."

The Guardian of London, which helped draft the editorial, published it today, with a note at the end. Here it is.
*

Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security. The dangers have been becoming apparent for a generation. Now the facts have started to speak: 11 of the past 14 years have been the warmest on record, the Arctic ice-cap is melting and last year's inflamed oil and food prices provide a foretaste of future havoc. In scientific journals the question is no longer whether humans are to blame, but how little time we have got left to limit the damage. Yet so far the world's response has been feeble and half-hearted.
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continues

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004051277
 
UN: 2000-2009 likely warmest decade on record

http://pda.physorg.com/climateconference-climate-emissions_news179479558.html

This decade is very likely to be the warmest since record keeping began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.

<SNIP>

The decade 2000-2009 "is very likely to be the warmest on record, warmer than the 1990s, than the 1980s and so on," Jarraud said at a news conference, holding up a chart with a temperature curve pointing upward.

If 2009 ends as the fifth-warmest year, it would replace the year 2003. According to the U.S. space agency NASA, the other warmest years since 1850 have been 2005, 1998, 2007 and 2006. NASA says the differences in readings among these years are so small as to be statistically insignificant.

<SNIP>
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Wangler said:
I wish this one was full text:

Global warming uncertainties due to carbon cycle feedbacks exceed those
due to CO2 emissions
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Well, after looking through it, and abouts the web abit, I can't link you to that paper, but I can get you to a few papers by one of the same lead authors, on similar considerations:

"Towards quantifying uncertainty in predictions of Amazon ‘dieback’"

'A methodology for probabilistic predictions of regional climate change from perturbed physics ensembles"

And a few more papers by different authors but discussing some similar considerations:

"Sensitivity of the carbon cycle in the Arctic to climate change"

"Effects of anthropogenic land cover change on the carbon cycle
of the last millennium"

"Terrestrial ecosystem carbon dynamics and climate feedbacks"

"Probabilistic Forecast for 21st Century Climate Based on Uncertainties in Emissions (without Policy) and Climate Parameters"
 
Wangler said:
This one seems rather poignant:

"As activists organised by the group Stop Climate Chaos gather in London to demand action, one of Britain's top climate scientists says the language of chaos and catastrophe has got out of hand."
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This entire article is quoted, is it the consideration of Mike Hulme, or is it his article and quoting someone else?

Hulme is hardly an unbiased climate scientist without personal economic stake in his position, not that this in anyway disqualifies his considerations, but merely a note that this is a factor in his position. He is dragging his feet at the conservative end of the data and considerations. We'll see if his considerations evolve over the coming decades.
 
Then again perhaps the ongoing "catastrophe has been poorly illuminated....

Exposure to Coal Lowers IQ in Newborns

by Susan Kraemer in Carbon/ GHG Reduction

When my friends across the border are astonished at the sheer stupidity that dominates American politics and national discourse – and exclaim “Is there something in the water over there?” they might be on to something. It turns out, there actually is something in the water over here affecting us. And in the air. It’s coal.

Physicians for Social Responsibility released a groundbreaking medical report, “Coal’s Assault on Human Health,” which takes a new look at the devastating impacts of coal on the national health.

Researchers estimate that every year another half million children are born in the U.S. with blood mercury levels high enough to reduce IQ scores and cause lifelong loss of intelligence.
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continues
http://greenlivingideas.com/topics/...g-neutrality-and-reduction/coal-making-stupid

the original report from the physicians
http://www.psr.org/resources/coals-assault-on-human-health.html
 
Old hay and Alpine ibex horns reveal how grasslands respond to climate change

http://pda.physorg.com/grasslandvegetation-grassland-climatechange_news179651642.html

How do plant ecosystems react to rising concentrations of the greenhouse gas CO2 in the atmosphere over the long term? This fundamental question is becoming increasingly pressing in light of global climate change. Researchers from the Chair of Grassland Science at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM, Germany) have now - for the first time worldwide - taken up this issue for grasslands. The scientists found their answers in two unlikely places: in horns of Alpine ibex from Switzerland and in 150-year-old hay from England.

<SNIP>

The result: In both locations the intrinsic water-use efficiency of the grassland vegetation rose over the years. This implies that the plants improved their water storage potential as temperatures rose and the level of CO2 in the atmosphere increased. Based on these results the TUM scientists have now, for the first time ever, managed to demonstrate the long-term effects of anthropogenic climate change on the water-use efficiency of grasslands.

There were, however, also differences between the two locations. In Switzerland the effective water-use efficiency of the Alpine meadows remained unchanged in spite of the increased intrinsic water-use efficiency of the grassland. This was because, overall, the air had become drier and warmer as a result of the climate change. In England the scientists found evidence for this effect only during the fall. In the spring though - which in Rothamsted is no drier today than it was 150 years ago - the water storage potential of grassland vegetation had a real effect. This insight will help to further improve climate simulations. In the past, complex simulation models that included vegetation had to rely on estimates where grassland was concerned. The scientists at the TU Muenchen have now succeeded in prying open this climate research black box.

<SNIP>
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Climate change turns up heat on mushrooms

http://pda.physorg.com/climatechange-earlier-fungi_news179599392.html

Scientists have discovered that spring-fruiting fungi, including the morel and St George’s mushroom are fruiting nearly three weeks earlier than they did 50 years ago.

The study, carried out by an international team of scientists, including a biologist from Royal Holloway, University of London, examines the changes in the time of spring fruiting in Norway and the UK between 1960 - 2007.

The findings are being published in the 'Proceedings of the Royal Society' this week and show not only how global warming has lead to the earlier fruiting of spring fungi but that climate affects the growth of organisms over much longer time scales than previously thought.

<SNIP>
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