Today’s video from Potholer54 (a.k.a. Peter Sinclair) dispels the myth that evidence for climate change is based solely on computer models, or some sort of hoax designed to make Al Gore rich, or a massive conspiracy by a cabal of power-hungry, grant-seeking climate scientists operating under the aegis of the IPCC. It’s stuff your great grandfather knew.
Worldwide Efforts to Combat Drought, Desertification to Take Shape in Namibia This Year
High-level representatives from 195 nations party to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification,, along with civic and environmental groups, will meet in Windhoek to assess progress and plan for future actions to address desertification, land degradation and drought, issues that now affect 168 nations at a cost of some $490 billion, not to mention the loss of lives, health, livelihoods, biodiversity and ecosystems.
Resiliency Index Will Assess Climate Risks for Cities
Working under the umbrella of C40 Cities, an international collaborative of cities working to assess and reduce their climate risk impacts, New York mayor Michael BloombergRead More
Rising Temperature, Sea Level On Track to Wipe Out Major World Cities Former Shell Exec Tells UN
The global community of nations is headed for catastrophes on an unprecedented scope and scale if fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions continue on trend, according to the latest scientific evidence and research. Global average temperature is on a path toward a warming of 4 degrees Celsius, which could result in sea level rises of 70 meters (230 feet), wiping out major cities, including London, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo.
The Promise of Climate Change Education Standards
“In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features ofRead More
Solutions to the World Water Crisis Requires International Cooperation
Sharing water across international boundaries is a complex international challenge that requires coordinated water policy formulation and responsible governance. To meet global water requirements governmentsRead More
US Insurance Industry Ill-Prepared to Deal with Climate Change Risk, Impacts
Eleven extreme weather events took place in the US in 2012. Each left at least $1 billion in damages in their wake. Besides the costRead More
The Growth of Efficient Buildings
The area of building efficiency affords tremendous opportunities for both economic growth and reduced environmental impacts. Buildings are the single largest emitters of greenhouse gases.Read More
Environmental Success Stories: Mercury, SLCPs and Many More
The overwhelming number of environmental calamities we face overshadows environmental success stories and this undermines efforts to build support for ecological action. People concerned aboutRead More
Video Friday: A Historical Perspective on Climate Change
I’ve noticed increased activity in the “twittersphere” this week trumpeting many of the well-worn memes of climate denial, apparently due to Barack Obama’s mention of climateRead More
Meeting the Climate Challenge: Cities Plan for Worst and Hope for the Best
At the national and international level climate action is stalled under the unyielding weight of factionalism and meeting the diverse agenda of a global community. AtRead More
New Support for the Interconnectedness of the Environment and the Economy
Two new reports reiterate the scientific veracity of anthropogenic climate change while reinforcing the interconnectedness of the economy and the environment. The World Economic ForumRead More
The Water-Energy Nexus in a Climate-Changed World
Editor’s note: This post is a finalist in Masdar’s Engage blogging contest as part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. Special thanks to Tim Hurst and Nick Aster. The water-energyRead More
Crafting a Positive Environmental Narrative
Positive narratives may be our best hope for fostering desperately needed environmental action. Decades of ecological warnings have failed to produce the necessary societal changes. The enthrallingRead More
Pessimism is Impeding Environmental Advocacy
While it is easy to understand why so many environmentally concerned people are fearful and pessimistic, these attitudes detract from the goal of improving our environment. Fear is well warranted, weRead More
40 Eco-Apps that Put Technology to Work for the Environment
Technology may not be a panacea to solve the climate crisis, but green applications (eco-apps) are helping to drive awareness and foster responsible action. ThereRead More
Archive for Climate Science
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Consensus among the world’s leading climate scientists has established a 2°C rise in global mean temperature as the tipping point for runaway climate change, but even that could result in catastrophic rises in sea level of as much as 6-7 meters (23 feet), energy expert Ian Dunlop and policy planner and scholar Tapio Kanninen told audiences at packed meetings and panel discussions at UN headquarters in New York City organized by the Finnish Mission to the United Nations, the Club of Rome, the Temple of Understanding and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Sea level rises of 6-7 meters would wipe out coastal cities, including London, New York, Shanghai and Tokyo, and that’s even if we could somehow manage to limit global average temperature rise to 2°C this century, Dunlop and Kanninen told shocked audiences at the UN, according to a Club of Rome report. Read More→
GlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:
- The US government is placing a focus on the threats of climate change to national security. If the rate and severity of natural disasters increases then a great strain will be placed on the military resources of the US. Americans don’t sit by and watch people suffer from natural disasters, we give our money to non-profits to help and allow our government to send help via the military as well. With both an unstable climate and economy the US has many challenges ahead.
- A new threshold imminent for the Keeling Curve. The latest measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations from observations on Mauna Loa in Hawaii last week stand at 399.7 parts-per-million (ppm), poised to cross the 400 ppm threshold for the first time in human history.
- I feel that if you can just explain an idea clearly to someone and it holds logic and fact then they will understand, but politicized topics blind us to reality. A new study actually shows that if Republicans truly listen to the case behind anthropocentric climate change then they become believers. Read More→
“Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia”; Nature Geoscience
Global average temperatures were the hottest in 1400 years in the 20th century, more specifically during the period 1971-2000, according to a first-of-its-kind scientific study. The study, conducted by a team of 78 climate researchers in 24 countries, helps break new ground in climate science in that the team compiled direct and proxy data from a range of sources to reconstruct 2000 years of temperature change for seven continental-scale regions. The global warming trend they detected, which began in the late 19th and accelerated over the course of the 20th century, is in stark contrast to, and reverses, a long-term cooling trend that lasted well over 1000 years.
Reconstructing climate change across seven continental-scale regions over the past 2000 years, the researchers drew on direct observations of temperature, as well as a variety of proxy data that included ice and coral reef cores, tree-ring measurements, pollen and lake sediment sampling. The study, “Continental-scale temperature variability during the past two millennia,” was published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience. Read More→
Clear air turbulence is the bane of air crew and passenger alike. Unlike easily recognizable turbulent air from mountain ranges and clouds, clear air turbulence is invisibile both to pilot and radar until it is encountered – and the drink ends up on your lap.
This sort of turbulence, lurking in the stratosphere where airliners operate, comes from the energy the pushes the jet stream and powers global atmospheric circulation patterns; great oceans of air that can unexpectedly toss a large airliner like a ship tossed in a turbulent sea.
New research just published in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests as the atmosphere warms the increased energy will speed up the jet stream and make moderate and severe turbulence much more likely for flyers crossing the through the North Atlantic, especially in the winter months.
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