Posts
May 12, 2013
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10:30 PM | Particles in the Air
By Evan Some might have noticed (particularly Claire, sorry!) that my postings have dropped quite a bit during the past month. The reason for this is that I have been on a world tour during the past month. I have … Continue reading →
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8:41 AM | 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #19
SkS Highlights
KK Tung posted part 2 of his article, The anthropogenic global warming rate: Is it steady for the last 100 years?. It generated an ongoing discussion with Dr. Tung on the role of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) in global climate change.
Who is Paying for Global Warming? by Agnostic suammarizes the findings of Yang and Cui (2012) which details the funding and increased use of coal likely over the next decade.
Toon of the Week
H/T to
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By Kelly When life starts getting just a little too hectic, Speedrun animation has the solution to all your entertainment needs. Your favourite movies in 60 seconds. and for the Matrix …I love the dancing in the nightclub…
May 11, 2013
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12:38 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19B
Are we doomed to food insecurity?
Big Oil may destroy world's largest rain forest
Chile looks to volcanoes and geysers for energy
Climate milestone is a moment of symbolic significance
Does God hate climate change?
Fresh analysis of the pace of warming and sea-level rise
Greenland’s ice loss may slow, but coasts still At risk
If the Oceans die - we die
New study tells three million-year old story of the Arctic
No need to worry about global warming, folks
The coming GOP civil war over
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May 10, 2013
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This is a partial re-post of my latest in the Guardian's Climate Consensus – the 97%. It's intended as a basic primer to reference the next time somebody tells you global warming is nothing to worry about because climate sensitivity is low.
What you need to know about climate sensitivity
It's a critical aspect of the climate system, but the basics are simple
Clouds are the only plausible feedback that could significantly dampen future global warming. Photograph: Graham Turner for
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2:25 PM | Episode 10: Beetle Hunt
Thirty-five years ago, Ilkka Hanski spent two months in Borneo wielding rotting meat to catch bugs in plastic containers. Last month, he repeated the trip again. Now, 20 pounds of beetles sit bagged up in […]
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5:55 AM | A hierarchy of fleas
Big fleas have little fleas, Upon their backs to bite ‘em, And little fleas have lesser fleas, And so, ad infinitum. The Siphonaptera We’ll start in the middle, shall we, with “high priest of climate scepticism” Chris Monckton still railing against the failure of the halls of NZ academe to bow down before his obvious [...]
May 09, 2013
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11:15 PM | Quick! Now!!! Solar Eclipse!
By Claire Apologies for the ridiculously late notice, but at this very moment, there is a solar eclipse occurring. It’s visible only from the Southern Hemisphere, particularly from northern Australia. For safety reasons, please don’t rush outside now and look … Continue reading →
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7:29 PM | Putting this spring’s cold in context
Putting our spring cold in contextHow unusual is it—and what happened to warming?The last month has seen a trail of smashed records across the central United States, as pulse after pulse of cold air careened down the Great Plains. How does this fit into the bigger picture of a warming U.S. climate?AtmosNews Category: Climate & Climate ChangeWeather ResearchPeople: Jerry MeehlArticle type: OpinionBob HensonYesBob Henson • May 10, 2013 | Bare trees and brown shrubs, freakish snows and
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The longest continuous Arctic land sediment core shows that the last time CO2 levels reached current levels, over 2.6 million years ago, North-East Russia was taken was 8°C warmer.
Melles, M., Brigham-Grette, J., Minyuk, P., Nowaczyk, N., Wennrich, V., DeConto, R., Anderson, P., Andreev, A., Coletti, A., Cook, T. & Haltia-Hovi, E. (2012). 2.8 Million Years of Arctic Climate Change from Lake El'gygytgyn, NE Russia, Science, 337 (6092) 315-320. DOI: 10.1126/science.1222135
Julie Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles, Pavel Minyuk, Andrei Andreev, Pavel Tarasov, Robert DeConto, Sebastian Koenig, Norbert Nowaczyk, Volker Wennrich, Peter Rosén, Eeva Haltia, Tim Cook, Catalina Gebhardt, Carsten Meyer-Jacob, Jeff Snyder, Ulrike Herzsch (2013). Pliocene Warmth, Polar Amplification, and Stepped Pleistocene Cooling Recorded in NE Arctic Russia, Science, Other: 10.1126/science.1233137
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By Kelly News just in from the folks at Geoscience Australia is that their Top GeoShot photography competition is now open. Geoscience Australia is looking for a collection of photographs that capture the essence of Earth science. The image can be … Continue reading →
May 08, 2013
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9:57 PM | How fast can trees migrate?
“As I did stand my watch upon the hill, I looked toward Birnam, and anon methought the wood began to move.” - Messenger, Shakespeare’s Macbeth The simple story of the last 2.5 million years of vegetation response to climate change could be summed up like this: temperature goes up and down, plants go back and forth. We’ve … Continue reading »
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9:23 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #19A
Carbon tax backers quietly forge ahead
Cherry-picking one survey to discredit a survey
Climate change denial, economics and conspiracy theories
Climate change scientist discusses life at center of storm
Drive to make energy cleaner has stalled
Hawaii in climate change bullseye
How the oil and gas boom will change America
Inaction on global warming 'not an option': Angela Merkel
Is climate change is a problem for governments and oil firms?
Rich countries drag feet at climate talks
Scrap fuel
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This year’s NZ climate change conference is fast approaching, and I’ll be heading up to Palmerston North at the beginning of next month to cover proceedings for Hot Topic. The conference runs over June 4th and 5th at the Convention Centre, and covers just about every aspect of work on climate and related issues in [...]
[Get the full story at Hot Topic...]
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Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists On Saturday May 4th the Alaska Volcano Observatory detected a series of low-level explosions at Cleveland volcano. Three discrete explosions occurred at 5:00 am, 9:17 am, and 11:44 am Saturday, while subsequent less powerful rumbles on Sunday denoted an ongoing low-level eruption. The sequence of eruptions emitted ash, gas, and steam into local airspace. Cleveland is a 5,676 foot tall conical stratovolcano, a restless volcano prone to rumbles, small […]
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By Claire Another scary climate milestone looks imminent. While there have been sporadic measurements of atmospheric concentrations above 400ppm, the weekly average value has yet to reach this limit at Mauna Loa. Looking at the last week or so of … Continue reading →
May 07, 2013
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7:05 AM | The human cost of climate change
Expert on international law Andrew Guzman takes a step back from analyzing climate change in terms of degrees and meters of sea level rise and breaks down all the ways climate change will affect humanity. Dr. Guzman offers this perspective … Continue reading →
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Al Gore isn’t overly pleased with Canada
Canadian official proposes yet another Tar Sands pipeline
House to vote on Keystone XL bill in May
Obama's former Communications Director's firm does PR
Oil sands growth will depend on Keystone
Oliver to defend oil sands during visit to Europe
Ottawa strikes back at Al Gore's remarks
Science committee jumps into Keystone pipeline fray
Tar Sands will be piped to the Gulf Coast
The many ways Joe Nocera is wrong on Keystone XL
TransCanada plans new
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12:00 AM | The Day After Tomorrow and The Younger Dryas
By Claire By now, it’s no secret to our regular readers that I love the movie “The Day After Tomorrow“. It’s the reason I became a climatologist and an awesome tool for talking to people about what I do for … Continue reading →
May 06, 2013
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8:34 AM | Malaria in the UK and climate change
A couple of days ago I saw this tweet: Pests? maybe; #malaria? don’t think so! #Climatechange could bring malaria to the UK bit.ly/16GO3UO #fearmongering — Tim France (@francetim) 5. mai 2013 I agree with Tim France, but with the short tweet he also assumes UK will be a rich country with a good health system [...]
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Potty peer Chris Monckton’s complaint against VUW academics Jonathan Boston, David Frame and Jim Renwick has been roundly rejected by the university. An investigation carried out by a senior member of the academic staff found that Monckton’s allegations of fraud and libel were “not substantiated”. VUW vice chancellor Pat Walsh was unequivocal in his support [...]
[Get the full story at Hot Topic...]
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2:08 AM | 2013 SkS Weekly Digest #18
SkS Highlights
John Cook's Participate in a survey measuring consensus in climate research provides an opportunity for SkS readers to to rate the abstracts of the climate papers with the purpose of estimating the level of consensus regarding the proposition that humans are causing global warming. Dana's Roy Spencer's Catholic Online Climate Myths garnered the most comments of the articles posted during the past week.
Toon of the Week
H/T
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12:00 AM | Investigating the Investigator
By Kelly One of the major draw cards for the Earth Sciences comes from the tantalizing prospect of field work. And for marine scientists, this couldn’t be more exciting than when field work involves a trip on a research vessel; … Continue reading →
May 05, 2013
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This is a guest post by Dr Gavin Kenny1, a New Zealand scientist who has worked on agricultural adaptation to climate change in NZ and world wide. He has a very interesting and informed perspective on the sorts of things NZ agriculture should be doing to address climate change as it happens — exactly the [...]
[Get the full story at Hot Topic...]
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The following article is a reprint of a news release posted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute on Apr 29, 2013
The Finnish Meteorological Institute has updated its estimates concerning the impact of rising sea levels on the Finnish coast.
Photo: Eija Vallinheimo
Post-glacial rebound and changes in the Earth’s gravity field protect the Finnish coast against rising sea levels, especially in the Gulf of Bothnia. In the Gulf of Finland, the sea level is starting to rise.
The rise in
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Why not devote 15 minutes of your time to a good cause? John Cook of Skeptical Science, one of the regulars on The Climate Show, who just happens to be a research fellow in climate communication for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, is crowd-sourcing a survey of the climate literature to [...]
[Get the full story at Hot Topic...]
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3:48 AM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18A
China taking the lead on climate change
Climate collision course: CO2 levels about to hit 400 PPM
Climate negotiations resume in Bonn
Global carbon dioxide levels set to surpass 400 ppm milestone
Hurricane Sandy dumped 11bn gallons of raw sewage
Scientists anxious as CO2 levels to cross 400 PPM
U.S. cities joining push to dump fossil fuel investments
Video of Arctic sea ice loss goes viral
Warmer seas may impact Antarctic clams’ reproduction
Where the sea has risen too high
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By Kelly There are few things as soothing to my ears as the philisophical physicist. I have listened to Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot (see below) more times than I can count, but I’m not a physicist so I can’t count very … Continue reading →
May 04, 2013
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7:14 PM | 2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #18B
Australian farmers suffer through drought
Belief in biblical end-times stifling climate change action in U.S.
Drought and heat may fuel early fire season in West (US)
Fast-moving climate zones are speeding extinction
Global carbon dioxide levels near worrisome milestone
How climate scientists are being framed
Ocean thermal power will debut off China's coast
Overheated: The Human Cost of Climate Change
Rain will get more extreme
Time for Big Green to go fossil free
Unburnable fuel
White House
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A recent study linking cold winters in Europe to sunspots has updated bad science reaching back to the 19th century for the internet age, reveal Geert Jan van Oldenborgh from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and his colleagues, helped by an unholy alliance between Roger Pielke Sr and Stefan Rahmstorf.
Sirocko, F., Brunck, H. & Pfahl, S. (2012). Solar influence on winter severity in central Europe, Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (16) DOI: 10.1029/2012GL052412
Pittock, A. B. (1983). Solar variability, weather and climate: An update, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, 109 (459) 23-55. DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710945903
van Oldenborgh, G., de Laat, A., Luterbacher, J., Ingram, W. & Osborn, T. (2013). Claim of solar influence is on thin ice: are 11-year cycle solar minima associated with severe winters in Europe?, Environmental Research Letters, 8 (2) 24014. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/2/024014
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