Dramatic Climate Change is Unpredictable
This is a schematic picture of the climate represented by the red ball. The climate can be located in two different states, the two valleys on each side of a hill. In the first scenario the climate is like a seesaw. If the outside influences increase or, for example, increased CO2 makes the weight heavier on the other side, the seesaw will tip forcing the climate over into the other state. The climate change would be predictable. In the second scenario, the hill is fixed and a series of small chaotic kicks from wind and weather could cause it to roll over into the other state. This climate change is unpredictable. Mathematically speaking, the first scenario is a "bifurcation" and the second scenario "noise-induced transition". (Credit: Peter Ditlevsen)
The fear that global temperature can change very quickly and cause dramatic climate changes that may have a disastrous impact on many countries and populations is great around the world. But what causes climate change and is it possible to predict future climate change? New research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen shows that it may be due to an accumulation of different chaotic influences and as a result would be difficult to predict. The results have just been published in Geophysical Research Letters.
For millions of years the Earth’s climate has alternated between about 100,000 years of ice age and approximately 10-15,000 years of a warm climate like we have today. The climate change is controlled by the Earth’s orbit in space, that is to say the Earth’s tilt and distance from the sun. But there are also other climatic shifts in the Earth’s history and what caused those?
Dramatic climate change of the past
By analysing the ice cores that are drilled through the more than three kilometer thick ice sheet in Greenland, scientists can obtain information about the temperature and climate going back around 140,000 years. (more…)
Scientists Projected an Increase in Intensity and Frequency of Extreme Weather Events
As reported on the website of the World Meteorological Organization: Several diverse extreme weather events are occurring concurrently around the world, giving rise to an unprecedented loss of human life and property. They include the record heatwave and wildfires in the Russian Federation, monsoonal flooding in Pakistan, rain-induced landslides in China, and calving of a large iceberg from the Greenland ice sheet. These should be added to the extensive list of extreme weather-related events, such as droughts and fires in Australia and a record number of high-temperature days in the eastern United States of America, as well as other events that occurred earlier in the year.
The heatwave in the European part of the Russian Federation is associated with a persistent pressure ridge that appeared in June 2010. Initially, it was associated with the Azores high, but later was reinforced by a strong inflow of warm air from the Middle East. More than 20 daily temperature records were broken including the absolute maximum temperature in Moscow. The high temperatures triggered massive forest and peat fires in the European part of the country. Some villages were burned completely, with smoke and smog adversely and greatly affecting the health and well-being of tens of millions of people. (more…)
New Computer Model Advances Climate Change Research
Modeling climate’s complexity. This image, taken from a larger simulation of 20th century climate, depicts several aspects of Earth’s climate system. Sea surface temperatures and sea ice concentrations are shown by the two color scales. The figure also captures sea level pressure and low-level winds, including warmer air moving north on the eastern side of low-pressure regions and colder air moving south on the western side of the lows. Such simulations, produced by the NCAR-based Community Climate System Model, can also depict additional features of the climate system, such as precipitation. Companion software, recently released as the Community Earth System Model, will enable scientists to study the climate system in even greater complexity. (©UCAR)
Scientists can now study climate change in far more detail with powerful new computer software released by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
The Community Earth System Model (CESM) will be one of the primary climate models used for the next assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The CESM is the latest in a series of NCAR-based global models developed over the last 30 years. The models are jointly supported by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor.
Scientists and engineers at NCAR, DOE laboratories, and several universities developed the CESM.
The new model’s advanced capabilities will help scientists shed light on some of the critical mysteries of global warming, including:
* What impact will warming temperatures have on the massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica?
* How will patterns in the ocean and atmosphere affect regional climate in coming decades?
* How will climate change influence the severity and frequency of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes?
* What are the effects of tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, on clouds and temperatures?
The CESM is one of about a dozen climate models worldwide that can be used to simulate the many components of Earth’s climate system, including the oceans, atmosphere, sea ice, and land cover. The CESM and its predecessors are unique among these models in that they were developed by a broad community of scientists. The model is freely available to researchers worldwide. (more…)
Measuring Salt Shine to Improve Climate Understanding
Lake Tuz
From 14 - 25 August 2010, scientists from around the world will gather in Southern Turkey to measure the spectral reflectance of a few square kilometres of salt. These measurements will have a major impact on the future of satellite based Earth observation, and will ultimately improve our understanding of the Earth’s climate.
For ten months of the year Tuz Gölü (Lake Tuz) in southern Turkey appears to be like any other lake. However, during July and August it dries to become a bright, pristine, white surface, which is ideal for calibrating Earth observation satellites.
Tuz Gölü is one of eight sites recently endorsed by the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS) to become an international reference standard to evaluate satellites’ sensor-to-sensor biases, and also to calibrate/validate their radiometric performance.
Observing the dynamic Earth
Satellite sensors are known to degrade significantly in-orbit. So it is very difficult to have confidence in any pre-flight assigned value of their radiometric characteristics. This makes measurements of subtle changes of the Earth (as needed for monitoring climate change) challenging. (more…)
Impacts of Climate Change on Mussels
Climate change is causing higher air and water temperatures along the east coast of the United States. These changes have shrunk the geographic region where blue mussels are able to survive, according to findings by University of South Carolina researchers published in the Journal of Biogeography.
Mytilus edulis, or blue mussels, a popular seafood, used to live along the East Coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but now exist only as far south as Lewes, Delaware, according to Sierra Jones, a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences at USC.
Most plants and animals have geographic ranges defined by northern and southern limits. In many cases, ranges are thought to be controlled by temperature, and if it becomes too hot, the limits will shift. However, linking changes in geographic range to changes in climate is difficult unless long-term records in distribution are compared to equally long-term records of weather.
Spanning over 300 miles of coastline, Jones and colleagues explored how survival of mussels changed across latitudes and decades with respect to temperature. As recently as sixty years ago, these mussels thrived as far south as North Carolina. Due to air and water temperature increases over the past sixty years, they no longer survive throughout the year south of Lewes, Delaware, and populations to the north now experience higher rates of mortality than in the past. (more…)
Global Warming and Floods
The world is witnessing extreme climate change, natural disasters and massive devastation.
Global warming may be responsible for a variety of natural disasters wreaking havoc in numerous regions of the world.
U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Capture, Regionally
A new report, Agriculture’s Role in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Capture, commissioned by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, examines the evidence for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and sequestration in America’s major agroecosystems.
The report summarizes current knowledge of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4) emissions and capture across six regions—Northeast, Southeast, Corn Belt, Northern Great Plains, Southern Great Plains, and Pacific—as influenced by cropping system, tillage, and soil management. The report also outlines conservation agricultural systems and practices including: no-till, reduced tillage, cover crops, leguminous green manures, and nutrient-use efficiency—that, when adopted, will result in increased capture and reduced emissions of these GHGs. Additionally, critical knowledge gaps for research are identified. The full report can be viewed online at: https://www.agronomy.org/files/science-policy/ghg-report-august-2010.pdf.
American Society of Agronomy President Fran Pierce said, “This timely report identifies critical knowledge gaps that must be addressed to provide America’s farmers with the management strategies and tools needed to increase carbon sequestration and reduce GHG emissions. Pierce added that, “Adoption of conservation agricultural systems, in addition to reducing emissions of GHGs, also enhances the productivity of our nation’s agroecosystems, thereby ensuring future domestic and global food and energy security.” (more…)
Climate Models Indicate Future Holds Stronger, Longer Heat Waves for Mid-Latitudes
Orange County, Indiana
Heat waves are a growing concern and current climate models indicate they will increase in duration and intensity especially in the mid-latitudes of which Indiana and the Midwest is a part,” says climate researcher and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) Professor Daniel Johnson.
“Heat waves are known to kill hundreds of people in the United States every year and are the leading cause of weather-related fatalities; usually outstripping the combined effects of hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning and flash floods. ”
“One of the most likely disasters to strike the Central Indiana region is an extreme heat event of considerable duration and strength, the researcher says.
Johnson, a geography professor in the School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, and colleagues of the Indiana University Institute for Research and Social Issues, are currently conducting two studies on the impact of heat waves on vulnerable populations within urbanized areas. The goal is to develop vulnerability models designed to assist emergency personnel in their response and mitigation to heat wave incidents. (more…)
Charcoal Takes Some Heat Off Global Warming
Biochar technology can help us bring down carbon dioxide to 350 ppm.
As much as 12 percent of the world’s human-caused greenhouse gas emissions could be sustainably offset by producing biochar, a charcoal-like substance made from plants and other organic materials. That’s more than what could be offset if the same plants and materials were burned to generate energy, concludes a study published today in the journal Nature Communications.
“These calculations show that biochar can play a significant role in the solution for the planet’s climate change challenge,” said study co-author Jim Amonette, a soil chemist at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “Biochar offers one of the few ways we can create power while decreasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. And it improves food production in the world’s poorest regions by increasing soil fertility. It’s an amazing tool.”
The study is the most thorough and comprehensive analysis to date on the global potential of biochar. The carbon-packed substance was first suggested as a way to counteract climate change in 1993. Scientists and policymakers have given it increasing attention in the past few years. The study was conducted by Dominic Woolf and Alayne Street-Perrott of Swansea University in Wales, U.K., Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., Stephen Joseph of the University of New South Wales, Australia, and Amonette. (more…)
Common Orchid Gives Scientists Hope in Face of Climate Change
Inside the Jodrell laboratory
A study led by scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s Jodrell Laboratory, which focuses on epigenetics in European common marsh orchids, has revealed that some plants may be able to adapt more quickly to environmental change than previously thought. The new study, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, brings new hope to plant conservation.
Epigenetics comprises hidden influences upon gene functions that occur without a change in the DNA sequence, but are potentially inheritable, and it is a new field of research that is reshaping the way scientists look at the living world. This new evidence that environmental effects on gene activity can be ‘remembered’ is hugely significant. In the modern interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution, scientists previously thought that genetic mutations (permanent changes in DNA sequence) were the only source of new traits that could be handed down from generation to generation, causing changes to the way species react to their environment. This process of adaptation can take hundreds of years and is almost certainly too slow for plants to adapt to rapid climate change.
However, in this cutting-edge study on a group of marsh orchids, Kew scientists have found that epigenetic variation can significantly influence the adaptive potential of an individual species. In turn, this affects the evolutionary potential of a species at a much quicker rate than was previously thought. (more…)
Higher Temperatures to Slow Asian Rice Production
By Rex Graham
Rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10–20 percent in several rice-growing locations.
Production of rice—the world’s most important crop for ensuring food security and addressing poverty—will be thwarted as temperatures increase in rice-growing areas with continued climate change, according to a new study by an international team of scientists.
The research team found evidence that the net impact of projected temperature increases will be to slow the growth of rice production in Asia. Rising temperatures during the past 25 years have already cut the yield growth rate by 10–20 percent in several locations.
Published in the online early edition the week of Aug. 9, 2010 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences —a peer-reviewed, scientific journal from the United States—the report analyzed six years of data from 227 irrigated rice farms in six major rice-growing countries in Asia, which produces more than 90 percent of the world’s rice.
“We found that as the daily minimum temperature increases, or as nights get hotter, rice yields drop,” said Jarrod Welch, lead author of the report and graduate student of economics at the University of California, San Diego. (more…)
The Worst Impact of Climate Change May Be How Humanity Reacts To It
One fifth of the world's remaining tropical forests lie within 50km of human populations that could be inundated if sea levels rise by 1m. These forests would make attractive sources of fuel-wood, building materials, food and other key resources.
The way that humanity reacts to climate change may do more damage to many areas of the planet than climate change itself unless we plan properly, an important new study published in Conservation Letters by Conservation International’s Will Turner and a group of other leading scientists has concluded.
The paper Climate change: helping nature survive the human response, looks at efforts to both reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and potential action that could be taken by people to adapt to a changed climate and assesses the potential impact that these could have on global ecosystems.
In particular it notes that one fifth of the world’s remaining tropical forests lie within 50km of human populations that could be inundated if sea levels rise by 1m. These forests would make attractive sources of fuel-wood, building materials, food and other key resources and would be likely to attract a population forced to migrate by rising sea levels. About half of all Alliance for Zero Extinction sites – which contain the last surviving members of certain species – are also in these zones.
Dr Turner said: “There are numerous studies looking at the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, but very little time has been taken to consider what our responses to climate change might do to the planet.” (more…)
Increased Destruction of Bird Populations are Predicted with Rise in Global Temperatures
Photo of Budgerigars killed by a heat wave on a ranch in western Australia in 2009 courtesy of Blair Wolf.
In 2003, a massive heat wave struck and killed some 30,000 people in Europe in an area where heat was not considered a major threat. Similar mass die-offs occur in wild birds and some mammals during heat waves, but unlike humans, birds may not be able to take shelter or find fresh water in order to survive devastating heat. What is the outlook for desert bird communities in light of expected global temperature increases on Earth?
Blair Wolf, an associate professor of biology at the University of New Mexico, and his collaborator Andrew McKechnie from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, have been studying how increasing global temperatures will impact desert bird populations. They have found that during heat waves, increases in air temperatures of as little as two degrees Fahrenheit can double the rate of water loss in a small bird and importantly impact its survival time.
Predicting Who Will Be the Victims
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that the average temperature of the planet will rise between 3.5 and 6.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the next hundred years. This may not seem like much to the average person, but according to Wolf, these changes could be disastrous for birds and some mammals because of the increased intensity and frequency of heat waves that will result. (more…)
Global Tropical Forests Threatened by 2100
The green areas are the distribution of refugia from recent deforestation, logging, and moderate and severe climate impacts in the tropical humid forests of the world. (Credit: Conservation Letters and Greg Asner)
By 2100 only 18% to 45% of the plants and animals making up ecosystems in global, humid tropical forests may remain as we know them today, according to a new study led by Greg Asner at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology. The research combined new deforestation and selective logging data with climate-change projections. It is the first study to consider these combined effects for all humid tropical forest ecosystems and can help conservationists pinpoint where their efforts will be most effective. The study is published in the August 5, 2010, issue of Conservation Letters.
“This is the first global compilation of projected ecosystem impacts for humid tropical forests affected by these combined forces,” remarked Asner. “For those areas of the globe projected to suffer most from climate change, land managers could focus their efforts on reducing the pressure from deforestation, thereby helping species adjust to climate change, or enhancing their ability to move in time to keep pace with it. On the flip side, regions of the world where deforestation is projected to have fewer effects from climate change could be targeted for restoration.”
Tropical forests hold more then half of all the plants and animal species on Earth. But the combined effect of climate change, forest clear cutting, and logging may force them to adapt, move, or die.
The scientists looked at land use and climate change by integrating global deforestation and logging maps from satellite imagery and high-resolution data with projected future vegetation changes from 16 different global climate models. They then ran scenarios on how different types of species could be geographically reshuffled by 2100.They used the reorganization of plant classes, such as tropical broadleaf evergreen trees, tropical drought deciduous trees, plus different kinds of grasses as surrogates for biodiversity changes. (more…)
Signs of Reversal of Arctic Cooling in Some Areas
Yuri Kononov of the Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and Michael Friedrich of the Institute of Botany, University of Hohenheim are collecting tree samples of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in the Khibiny Low Mountains (central Kola Peninsula in Arctic Russia). (Credit: Photo: Michael Friedrich /Institute of Botany, University of Hohenheim)
Parts of the Arctic have cooled clearly over the past century, but temperatures have been rising steeply since 1990 also there. This is the finding of a summer temperature reconstruction for the past 400 years produced on the base of tree rings from regions beyond the Arctic Circle. German and Russian researchers analysed tree growth using ring width of pine from Russia’s Kola Peninsula and compared their findings with similar studies from other parts of the Arctic. For the past 400 years since AD 1600, the reconstructed summer temperature on Kola in the months of July and August has varied between 10.4°C (1709) and 14.7°C (1957), with a mean of 12.2°C. Afterwards, after a cooling phase, a ongoing warming can be observed from 1990 onwards. Researchers from the Institute of Geography in Moscow, Hohenheim University and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) report in journal Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research: “The data indicate that solar activity may have been one of the major driving factors of summer temperatures, but this has been overlaid by other factors since 1990″.
The researchers used for this study wood samples from a total of 69 Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris) from the Khibiny Mountains on the Kola Peninsula, situated between the Arctic Circle and the ocean port of Murmansk, not far from the Finnish border. The investigated region is a transition zone between Scandinavia, which is strongly affected by the gulf stream resp. North Atlantic Current, and the continental regions Eurasia. This makes the region particularly interesting for climatological studies. (more…)
A Warming World Can Still See Severe Winter Storms
Unusually cold weather turned the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool into an ice rink. (Credit: FamousDC.
The memory of last winter’s blizzards may be fading in this summer’s searing heat, but scientists studying them have detected a perfect storm of converging weather patterns that had little relation to climate change. The extraordinarily cold, snowy weather that hit parts of the U.S. East Coast and Europe was the result of a collision of two periodic weather patterns in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, a new study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds.
It was the snowiest winter on record for Washington D.C., Baltimore and Philadelphia, where more than six feet of snow fell over each. After a blizzard shut down the nation’s capital, skeptics of global warming used the frozen landscape to suggest that manmade climate change did not exist, with the family of conservative senator James Inhofe posing next to an igloo labeled “Al Gore’s new home.”
After analyzing 60 years of snowfall measurements, a team of scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory found that the anomalous winter was caused by two colliding weather events. El Niño, the cyclic warming of the tropical Pacific, brought wet weather to the southeastern U.S. at the same time that a strong negative phase in a pressure cycle called the North Atlantic Oscillation pushed frigid air from the arctic down the East Coast and across northwest Europe. End result: more snow. (more…)
Groundbreaking Sandia Study Ties Climate Uncertainties to Economies of US States
A climate-change study at Sandia National Laboratories that models the near-term effects of declining rainfall in each of the 48 U.S. continental states makes clear the economic toll that could occur unless an appropriate amount of initial investment — a kind of upfront insurance payment — is made to forestall much larger economic problems down the road.
Why tie climate change to economics?
“Absent any idea of costs, the need to address climate change seems remote and has a diluted sense of urgency,” study lead George Backus said.
The Sandia study uses probability techniques familiar to insurance companies. Tables place dollar estimates on the effects of climate change in the absence of mitigation or other policy initiatives over the 2010-2050 time period.
The analysis is based upon results delivered by a variety of computational models reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report. From those, the Sandia report estimates the range of precipitation conditions — from lows to highs — that could occur across the states. The study then presents the consequence of those levels of precipitation on the states’ economies. (more…)
When Climate Change Becomes a Health Issue, Are People More Likely To Listen?
Edward Maibach
Framing climate change as a public health problem seems to make the issue more relevant, significant and understandable to members of the public—even some who don’t generally believe climate change is happening, according to preliminary research by George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication (4C).
The center recently conducted an exploratory study in the United States of people’s reactions to a public health-framed short essay on climate change. They found that on the whole, people who read the essay reacted positively to the information.
Previous research conducted by Mason investigators and others, using people’s beliefs, behaviors and policy preferences about global warming as assessed in a national survey, identified six distinct segments of Americans, termed Global Warming’s Six Americas.
In the current research, 4C director Edward Maibach interviewed approximately one dozen people in each of the Six Americas after they read the brief essay on the human health implications of global warming. As expected, he found that members of the audience segments who already believe strongly that climate change is happening had a strong positive response to the new information, while people who are less sure if climate change is happening also found value in the information. Nearly half of the comments made by members of the “Disengaged” segment, for example, indicated that the essay reflected their personal point of view, was informative or thought-provoking or offered valuable prescriptive information on how to take action relative to climate change. Moreover, about 40 percent of those people in the “Doubtful” segment had similar positive reactions to the essay. (more…)
Global Model Confirms: Cool Roofs Can Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions and Mitigate Global Warming
Can light-colored rooftops and roads really curb carbon emissions and combat global climate change? The idea has been around for years, but now, a new study by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that is the first to use a global model to study the question has found that implementing cool roofs and cool pavements in cities around the world can not only help cities stay cooler, they can also cool the world, with the potential of canceling the heating effect of up to two years of worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.
Because white roofs reflect far more of the sun’s heat than black ones, buildings with white roofs will stay cooler. If the building is air conditioned, less air conditioning will be required, thus saving energy. Even if there is no air conditioning, the heat absorbed by a black roof both heats the space below, making the space less comfortable, and is also carried into the city air by wind—raising the ambient temperature in what is known as the urban heat island effect. Additionally, there’s a third, less familiar way in which a black roof heats the world: it radiates energy directly into the atmosphere, which is then absorbed by the nearest clouds and ends up trapped by the greenhouse effect, contributing to global warming.
Cool roof in Solano
Today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced a series of initiatives at the Department of Energy to more broadly implement cool roof technologies on DOE facilities and buildings across the federal government. As part of the effort to make the federal government more energy efficient, Chu has directed all DOE offices to install cool roofs, whenever cost effective over the lifetime of the roof, when constructing new roofs or replacing old ones at DOE facilities. Additionally, the Secretary has also issued a letter to the heads of other federal agencies, encouraging them to take similar steps at their facilities. (more…)
NRC Report: Emission Choices Made Now Can Lock in Climate Changes for Centuries to Millennia
When it comes to our planet’s health, a group including a Texas Tech University climate researcher has devised a list of advice and recommendations for possible outcomes to consider when deciding about future emissions targets.
Choices made now about carbon dioxide emissions reductions will affect climate change and its impacts over the next few decades and in coming centuries and millennia, said Katharine Hayhoe, who contributed to a new report from the National Research Council.
The report is titled Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia.
“Many of us have had the experience of going to the doctor and receiving advice on how to improve our health,” Hayhoe said. “Then, it’s up to us to decide how much we are willing to change. In a similar way, this report presents the probabilities of certain impacts at different levels of global temperature increase. But we, the scientists, can’t make the decisions of how much risk is acceptable. That’s a political decision. Rather, we’re trying to give policymakers the information they need to make these decisions.” (more…)
Reports Detail Global Investment and Other Trends in Green Energy
This image is of Horse Hollow Wind Farm, US. (Credit: GWEC)
In 2009, for the second year in a row, both the US and Europe added more power capacity from renewable sources such as wind and solar than conventional sources like coal, gas and nuclear, according to twin reports launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21).
Renewables accounted for 60 per cent of newly installed capacity in Europe and more than 50 per cent in the USA in 2009. This year or next, experts predict, the world as a whole will add more capacity to the electricity supply from renewable than non-renewable sources.
The reports detail trends in the global green energy sector, including which sources attracted the greatest attention from investors and governments in different world regions.
They say investment in core clean energy (new renewables, biofuels and energy efficiency) decreased by 7% in 2009, to $162 billion. Many sub-sectors declined significantly in money invested, including large (utility) scale solar power and biofuels. However, there was record investment in wind power. If spending on solar water heaters, as well as total installation costs for rooftop solar PV, were included, total investment in 2009 actually increased in 2009, bucking the economic trend. (more…)
Gwynne Dyer: Climate Wars
Gwynne Dyer discusses the content of his latest book “Climate Wars” over tortillas, guacamole, and stuffed poblano peppers at Frida restaurant in Toronto. He presents four conclusions on the geopolitical implications of a warming globe.
Conclusion 1 and 2
Mat Stein Maps One Possible Route to a Sustainable Future (Video)
Mat Stein, author of When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency
Mat Stein, author of When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency (described as a comprehensive manual on sustainable living skills), maps out our society’s route to a sustainable future.
As the owner of Stein Design & Construction, Mat has built hurricane resistant, energy efficient and environmentally friendly homes. The mechanical engineering side of his firm specializes in product design and development.
Over the years he has designed consumer water filtration devices, photovoltaic roofing panels, medical bacteriological filters, emergency chemical drench systems, computer disk drives, automated machinery, and portable fiberglass buildings.
In recognition of his expertise, Mat has appeared on numerous radio and television programs and is a repeat guest on Fox News, Lionel, Coast-to-Coast AM, and the Thom Hartmann Show. He has also written several articles on the subject of sustainable living and is a guest columnist for the Huffington Post. (more…)
First Six Months of 2010 Second Warmest on Record
Global average temperatures through the first six months of 2010 continue to not set records, according to Dr. John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. June 2010 was the second warmest June in the 32-year satellite temperature record and the first six months of 2010 were also the second warmest on record.
Compared to seasonal norms, temperatures in the tropics and the Northern Hemisphere continued to fall from May through June as the El Nino Pacific Ocean warming event fades and indications of a La Nina Pacific Ocean cooling event increase.
The warmest Junes on record were June 1998 at 0.56 C warmer than seasonal norms, June 2010 at +0.44 and June 2002 at +0.36.
Scientists are introducing a new map of monthly temperature anomalies this month.
The new map more accurately represents the relative sizes of both map features and areas of warming or cooling. (more…)
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