From Cairo to the Cape, climate change begins to take hold of Africa

London, December 1st 2011 - The world's poorest communities have begun to experience extreme weather outside the natural variability of African climate. Without a rapid reduction in emissions, the continent faces calamitous temperature rises within this century.
> www.guardian.co.uk: From Cairo to the Cape, climate change begins to take hold of Africa

Industrial air pollution cost Europe up to €169 billion in 2009, EEA reveals

(EEA), November 29 2011 - Air pollution from the 10,000 largest polluting facilities in Europe cost citizens between € 102 and 169 billion in 2009. This was one of the findings of a new report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) which analysed the costs of harm to health and the environment caused by air pollution. Half of the total damage cost (between € 51 and 85 billion) was caused by just 191 facilities.
> www.eea.europa.eu: Industrial air pollution cost Europe up to €169 billion in 2009, EEA reveals

Researchers develop a how-to guide to slashing California's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

(Physorg), November 24 2011 - What will a day in the life of a Californian be like in 40 years? If the state cuts its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 — a target mandated by a state executive order — a person could wake up in a net-zero energy home, commute to work in a battery-powered car, work in an office with smart windows and solar panels, then return home and plug in her car to a carbon-free grid.
> www.physorg.com: Researchers develop a how-to guide to slashing California's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050

Carbon emissions divide 'can be bridged'

London, November 23 / 24 2011 - The gap between where greenhouse gas emissions are headed and where they need to be for climate targets can be bridged cheaply, says a UN report.
It says that if sectors such as energy, farming, forestry and transport all cut emissions by feasible amounts, global warming can be kept below 2C.
But countries' current pledges are not enough to meet the 2C target.
The report, Bridging the Emissions Gap, comes shortly before this year's UN climate summit opens in South Africa.
> www.bbc.co.uk: Carbon emissions divide 'can be bridged'
> www.bbc.co.uk: Electricity cost to rise due to government policies
> www.unep.org: Bridging the Emissions Gap to Meet 2-Degree Target Doable

Emissions Cuts Off Course To Halt Global Warming: UNEP
London, November 23 / 24 2011 - Greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 could rise more than forecast to between 6 billion and 11 billion tons above what is needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report showed on Wednesday.
The gap between countries' emissions cut pledges and what is needed to remain under what scientists say is the limit to avoid devastating effects of global warming has widened since its 2010 estimate of 5-9 billion tons as new data emerged, UNEP said.
Extreme weather is likely to worsen across the globe this century as the Earth's climate warms, U.N. scientists warned last week, but global carbon emissions rose to a record level last year.
"To stay within the 2 degree limit, global emissions will have to peak soon (and) total greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 must be about 46 percent lower than their 1990 level, or about 53 percent lower than their 2005 level," the report said.
> planetark.org: Emissions Cuts Off Course To Halt Global Warming: UNEP

Climategate 2.0: Two-year old turkey

(Real Climate) 22 / 24 November 2011 The blogosphere is abuzz with the appearance of a second tranche of the emails stolen from CRU just before thanksgiving in 2009. Our original commentary is still available of course (CRU Hack, CRU Hack: Context, etc.), and very little appears to be new in this batch. Indeed, even the out-of-context quotes aren’t that exciting, and are even less so in-context.
> www.realclimate.org: Climategate 2.0: Two-year old turkey
> foia2011.org: Climategate 2 FOIA 2011 Searchable Database (Nov 24)
> www.independent.co.uk: Hacked emails do not subvert climate science, says university (2411)
> www.bbc.co.uk: 'New release' of climate emails (2211)

IEA urges to expand renewable energy use
Paris, November 23 2011 - The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday called for more efforts to expand the practice of deploying renewable energy, to face energy security and climate change challenges.
> news.xinhuanet.com: IEA urges to expand renewable energy use

Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Continue Climbing

Geneva, 21 November 2011 – The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new high in 2010 since pre-industrial time and the rate of increase has accelerated, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. It focussed special attention on rising nitrous oxide concentrations.
Between 1990 and 2010, according to the report, there was a 29% increase in radiative forcing - the warming effect on our climate system - from greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide accounted for 80% of this increase.
“The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has yet again reached record levels since pre-industrial time,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today – and this is far from the case – they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate.”
> www.wmo.int: Greenhouse Gas Concentrations Continue Climbing
> www.wmo.int: Graphs of Climbing Greenhouse Gases (large)

2 Degree Celsius Climate Target at Risk from Ozone-Friendly Replacement Chemicals

Bali (Indonesia) / Nairobi, 21 November 2011 - Keeping a global, 21st century temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius will require urgent action on a group of chemicals increasingly being used in products such as air conditioners, refrigerators, firefighting equipment and insulation foams.
The chemicals, collectively known as Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are becoming popular as replacements for those phased-out or being phased-out to protect the ozone layer—the Earth's high flying shield that filters out dangerous levels of the sun's ultra violet rays.
But a report launched today by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) projects that by 2050 HFCs could be responsible for emissions equivalent to 3.5 to 8.8 Gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (Gt CO2eq) - comparable to total current annual emissions from transport, estimated at around 6-7 Gt annually.
> thinkprogress.org: UN Warns of Climate Risk From Growing HFC Emissions
> www.unep.org: 2 Degree Celsius Climate Target at Risk from Ozone-Friendly Replacement Chemicals
> www.unep.org / HFCs: A Critical Link in Protecting Climate and the Ozone Layer (pdf 40 pagina's)

Summary for Policy Makers of the new Special Report on Extremes (SREX)

Stanford, CA / USA, November 18 2011 - The IPCC has released the Summary for Policy Makers of the new Special Report on Extremes (SREX). This report, approved by all governments in the UN, summarizes best scientific knowledge on (i) how climate change affects weather extremes, now and in the future (ii) how these extremes result in disasters (iii) how those changing risks should be managed. Maarten van Aalst, director of the Climate Centre, contributed to the SREX report as a Coordinating Lead Author to the IPCC. The full SREX report will be available in february 2012.
> www.climatecentre.org: Summary for Policy Makers of the new Special Report on Extremes (SREX)
> www.ipcc.ch: PRESS NOTE / Special Report on Extremes (SREX)
> www.ipcc-wg2.gov: IPCC SREX Summary for Policymakers
See also:
> www.realclimate.org: The IPCC report on extreme climate and weather events

World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns

Paris, November 9 / 18 2011 - If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change.
The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be "lost for ever", according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.
> www.guardian.co.uk: World headed for irreversible climate change in five years, IEA warns
> www.usatoday.com: Warming World Wild Weather
> thinkprogress.org: Report Is Mostly Silent on Warming’s Gravest Threat to Humanity
> thinkprogress.org: IPCC Extreme Weather Report Is Another Blown Chance to Explain the Catastrophes Coming If We Keep Doing Nothing

Scientists Warn New York Must Prepare For Climate Change Now
Albany, N.Y. (AP) November 16 2011 - Devastating floods like those caused in upstate New York by the remnants of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee are among the climate change effects predicted in a new report written by 50 scientists and released Wednesday by the state's energy research agency.
> www.huffingtonpost.com: Scientists Warn New York Must Prepare For Climate Change Now

Adapting Decision Making for a Warming World

New York, November 15th, 2011 - The world must start adapting now to a very different, much hotter tomorrow, one in which business as usual policies and practices will simply not suffice. The extreme weather events over the past two years provide a foretaste of what is to come. But dealing with more frequent and intense disasters (to use an apt metaphor) will be only the tip of the iceberg.
> climate-l.iisd.org / WRI: Adapting Decision Making for a Warming World

NOAA: Global temperatures 8th warmest on record for October

November 15, 2011 The globe experienced its eighth warmest October since record keeping began in 1880. Arctic sea ice extent was the second smallest extent on record for October at 23.5 percent below average. Additionally, La Niña conditions strengthened during October 2011. According to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, La Niña is expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter.
> www.noaanews.noaa.gov: Global temperatures 8th warmest on record for October

New study suggests EU biofuels are as carbon intensive as petrol
(Eurekalert.org), November 4 2011 - A new study on greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations has calculated a more than 50% increase in levels of CO2 emissions than previously thought – and warned that the demand for 'green' biofuels could be costing the earth.
> www.eurekalert.org: New study suggests EU biofuels are as carbon intensive as petrol

Pollution may be strengthening Asian cyclones

(www.sciencenews.org), November 2 / 3, 2011 - A large and growing brown cloud of persistent air pollution hovering over northern India and surrounding regions has doubled — and occasionally tripled — the intensity of late spring cyclones in the Arabian Sea during the past three decades.
> www.sciencenews.org: Pollution may be strengthening Asian cyclones
> www.nature.com: Arabian Sea tropical cyclones intensified by emissions of black carbon and other aerosols

Climate change linked to extreme weather
Geneva, November 1, 2011 - A draft UN report three years in the making concludes that man-made climate change has boosted the frequency or intensity of heat waves, wildfires, floods and cyclones and that such disasters are likely to increase in the future.
> news.smh.com.au: Climate change linked to extreme weather

Richard Muller, Global Warming Skeptic, Finds Climate Change Real In His Own Study

Washington, Oct 31 2011 - A prominent physicist and skeptic of global warming spent two years trying to find out if mainstream climate scientists were wrong. In the end, he determined they were right: Temperatures really are rising rapidly.
The study of the world's surface temperatures by Richard Muller was partially bankrolled by a foundation connected to global warming deniers. He pursued long-held skeptic theories in analyzing the data. He was spurred to action because of "Climategate," a British scandal involving hacked emails of scientists.
On Monday, Muller was taking his results — four separate papers that are not yet published or peer-reviewed, but will be, he says — to a conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, expected to include many prominent skeptics as well as mainstream scientists.
"Of course he'll be welcome," said Petr Chylek of Los Alamos National Lab, a noted skeptic and the conference organizer. "The purpose of our conference is to bring people with different views on climate together, so they can talk and clarify things."
Shawn Lawrence Otto, author of the book "Fool Me Twice" that criticizes science skeptics, said Muller should expect to be harshly treated by global warming deniers. "Now he's considered a traitor. For the skeptic community, this isn't about data or fact. It's about team sports. He's been traded to the Indians. He's playing for the wrong team now."
> www.huffingtonpost.ca: Richard Muller, Global Warming Skeptic, Finds Climate Change Real In His Own Study
> Climate skeptic admits he was wrong to doubt global-warming data (Oct 25)
> Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study (Oct 21)

Human Population Reaches 7 Billion—How Did This Happen and Can It Go On?
(Scientific American) October 27, 2011 - A mere 12 years after surmounting six billion, the world's population will reach seven billion, according to the U.N. But that rate seems to be slowing.
> www.scientificamerican.com: Human Population Reaches 7 Billion—How Did This Happen and Can It Go On?
> www.scientificamerican.com: The World's Growing Population Poses a Malthusian Dilemma

How to get the message across on climate change

(www.physorg.com) October 27, 2011 - For many scientists working in the field of climate research, one of the most alarming trends has nothing to do with the climate itself: It’s the poll numbers showing that even as scientific projections of global climate change get ever more certain, public perceptions about climate change are getting ever more skeptical.
> www.physorg.com: How to get the message across on climate change

Human-Caused Climate Change Already a Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts

New York, 27 October 2011 - NOAA reports that global warming is harming humans right now in a dramatic way. Wintertime droughts are increasingly common in the Mediterranean region, and human-caused climate change is partly responsible, according to a new analysis by NOAA scientists and colleagues at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES). In the last 20 years, 10 of the driest 12 winters have taken place in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
“The magnitude and frequency of the drying that has occurred is too great to be explained by natural variability alone,” said Martin Hoerling, Ph.D. of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., lead author of a paper published online in the Journal of Climate this month. “This is not encouraging news for a region that already experiences water stress, because it implies natural variability alone is unlikely to return the region’s climate to normal.”
> thinkprogress.org: Human-Caused Climate Change Already a Major Factor in More Frequent Mediterranean Droughts
> www.noaanews.noaa.gov / NOAA study: Human-caused climate change a major factor in more frequent Mediterranean droughts
> www2.ucar.edu: Palmer Drought Severity Index [PDSI]

Air capture technology ready by 2018: UK engineers

London, October 26 2011 - Geo-engineering technology to absorb climate-warming carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere can be rolled out by 2018, the UK's Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) said.
The institution is demonstrating the air capture technology on Wednesday evening on a small scale as the UK government and academics meet to discuss its potential.
The device, resembling a giant fly swat, is a thousand times more effective at absorbing carbon dioxide from the air than a tree of about the same size, according to the IME, whose members are developing it.
> www.reuters.com: Air capture technology ready by 2018: UK engineers

Calcutta leads world city list most at risk from climate change

London, October 26 2011 - A major new mapping study, analysing climate change vulnerability down to 25km² worldwide, has revealed some of the world’s fastest growing populations are increasingly at risk from the impacts of climate related natural hazards and sea level rise.
Many of the countries with the fastest population growth are rated as ‘extreme risk’ in the Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) released by risk analysis and mapping firm Maplecroft. These include the strategically important emerging economies of Bangladesh (2nd), Philippines (10th), Viet Nam (23rd), Indonesia (27th) and India (28th).
> www.clickgreen.org.uk: Calcutta leads world city list most at risk from climate change

Crop Scientists Now Fret About Heat Not Just Water

Oslo, October 25 2011 - Crop scientists in the United States, the world's largest food exporter, are pondering an odd question: could the danger of global warming really be the heat?
> planetark.org: Crop Scientists Now Fret About Heat Not Just Water

Climate skeptic admits he was wrong to doubt global-warming data

(Physorg), October 25, 2011 - Remember when scientists who had cast doubt on global temperature studies boldly embarked on an effort to "reconsider" the evidence? They have. And they conclude that their doubt was misplaced.
> www.physorg.com: Climate skeptic admits he was wrong to doubt global-warming data
> online.wsj.com / Richard A Muller: The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism / There were good reasons for doubt, until now

Berkeley earthquake called off

(Real Climate), October 25, 2011 - Anybody expecting earthshaking news from Berkeley, now that the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature group being led by Richard Muller has released its results, had to be content with a barely perceptible quiver. As far as the basic science goes, the results could not have been less surprising if the press release had said “Man Finds Sun Rises At Dawn.” This must have been something of a disappointment for anyone hoping for something else.
> www.realclimate.org: Berkeley earthquake called off
> Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study (Oct 21)

Bleak Prospects for Avoiding Dangerous Global Warming

(Science / Planetark) 23 / 24 October 2011 - The bad news just got worse: A new study finds that reining in greenhouse gas emissions in time to avert serious changes to Earth's climate will be at best extremely difficult. Current goals for reducing emissions fall far short of what would be needed to keep warming below dangerous levels, the study suggests. To succeed, we would most likely have to reverse the rise in emissions immediately and follow through with steep reductions through the century. Starting later would be far more expensive and require unproven technology.
> ews.sciencemag.org: Bleak Prospects for Avoiding Dangerous Global Warming
> planetark.org: Warming Could Exceed Safe Levels In This Lifetime

New study shows no simultaneous warming of northern and southern hemispheres as a result of climate change for 20 000 years
Lund (Sweden) 21 October 2011 - A common argument against global warming is that the climate has always varied. Temperatures rise sometimes and this is perfectly natural is the usual line.
However, Svante Björck, a climate researcher at Lund University in Sweden, has now shown that global warming, i.e. simultaneous warming events in the northern and southern hemispheres, have not occurred in the past 20 000 years, which is as far back as it is possible to analyse with sufficient precision to compare with modern developments. Svante Björck’s study thus goes 14 000 years further back in time than previous studies have done. “What is happening today is unique from a historical geological perspective”, he says.
> www.lunduniversity.lu.se: Global warming caused by human influence on the earth’s carbon cycle

Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study

Berkeley (Ca/USA) / London, October 21 2011 - The Earth's surface really is getting warmer, a new analysis by a US scientific group set up in the wake of the "Climategate" affair has concluded.
The Berkeley Earth Project has used new methods and some new data, but finds the same warming trend seen by groups such as the UK Met Office and Nasa.
The project received funds from sources that back organisations lobbying against action on climate change.
"Climategate", in 2009, involved claims global warming had been exaggerated.
Emails of University of East Anglia (UEA) climate scientists were hacked, posted online and used by critics to allege manipulation of climate change data.

Regular media:
> www.nature.com: Scientific climate Oct 27)
> edition.cnn.com: New climate study deals blow to skeptics
> www.nature.com: Different method, same result: global warming is real
> www.bbc.co.uk: Fresh Start / Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study
> www.economist.com: The Heat is on
> www.guardian.co.uk: Global warming study finds no grounds for climate sceptics' concerns
> www.newscientist.com: Sceptical climate scientists concede Earth has warmed
> www.forbes.com: Breaking News: The Earth Still Goes Around the Sun, and It's Still Warming Up
> online.wsj.com / Richard A Muller: The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism / There were good reasons for doubt, until now

Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project:
> berkeleyearth.org: Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature
> berkeleyearth.org / Press release: Cooling the warming debate / Berkeley Earth Releases Global Land Warming Analysis (oct 20)

Blogs:
> thinkprogress.org: Koch-Funded Berkeley Temperature Study Does “Confirm the Reality of Global Warming”
> www.skepticalscience.com / Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Study: “The effect of urban heating on the global trends is nearly negligible”

Koch Industries:
> www.greenpeace.org: Koch Industries still fueling climate denial

Building better environmental policy by looking into the future
Copenhagen (DK), October 21 2011 - As we prepare for a future yet unwritten, a cascade of uncertainty presents itself - the future structure of our society and economies is uncertain; the environmental changes that may result are uncertain; and how we might react or adapt to such environmental changes is also uncertain. Against the backdrop of these and many other uncertainties, long-term analysis can help create more robust environmental policy and the space for innovative thinking.
> www.eea.europa.eu: Building better environmental policy by looking into the future

California approves carbon market rules

Sacramento, October 21 2011 - California regulators on Thursday approved final regulations for a carbon market that is one of the biggest U.S. responses to climate change.
> www.reuters.com: California approves carbon market rules

Lord Lawson's Global Warming Policy Foundation is spreading errors

London, October 21 2011 - The former chancellor is an avowed climate sceptic – and the 'facts' he repeats are demonstrably inaccurate. Still Lord Lawson of Blaby has enjoyed a massive boost to his public profile over the past couple of years following the launch of his Global Warming Policy Foundation in November 2009.
However, there are multiple examples of Lord Lawson making statements, including in BBC interviews and parliamentary debates, which are not consistent with the most up-to-date evidence and research.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Lord Lawson's Global Warming Policy Foundation is spreading errors (Oct 21 2011)
> www.guardian.co.uk: The voices of climate change sceptics (Nov 24 2009)

Safety First, Fracking Second

New York, October 19 2011 - A decade ago layers of shale lying deep underground supplied only 1 percent of America’s natural gas. Today they provide 30 percent. Drillers are rushing to hydraulically fracture, or “frack,” shales in a growing list of U.S. states. That is good news for national energy security, as well as for the global climate, because burning gas emits less carbon dioxide than burning coal. The benefits come with risks, however, that state and federal governments have yet to grapple with.
> www.scientificamerican.com: Safety First, Fracking Second

„World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability“

Berlin, October 19 2011 - A new report under the name „World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability“ will be presented by the German WGBU. The report focusses on climate protection strategies with a view to limit global warming to 2°C.
The full english translation of the WBGU report „World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability“ is now available for download.
> World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability“
or at:
> World in Transition – A Social Contract for Sustainability“
In this report, the WBGU explains the reasons for the desperate need for a post-fossil economic strategy, yet it also concludes that the transition to sustainability is achievable, and presents ten concrete packages of measures to accelerate the imperative restructuring. If the transformation really is to succeed, we have to enter into a social contract for innovation, in the form of a new kind of discourse between governments and citizens, both within and beyond the boundaries of the nation state.
> www.wbgu.de: Factsheet 1/2011: A Social Contract for Sustainability
> www.wbgu.de: Factsheet 2/2011: Transforming Energy Systems

Silent drama: The Vanishing Arctic

Credit: www.fd.nl

Potsdam, 17 October 2011 - Largely unnoticed, a silent drama has been unfolding over the past weeks in the Arctic. The long-term consequences will far outstrip those of the international debt crisis or the demise of the Libyan dictatorship, the news stories now commanding media attention.
> www.eco-business.com: The Vanishing Arctic
> www.project-syndicate.org: The Vanishing Arctic
> Arctic Melt

Global warming fades from U.S. spotlight; As other nations act, Americans become more skeptical about urgency
New York, October 16 2011 - In 2008, both the Democratic and Republican candidates for president, Barack Obama and John McCain, warned about man-made global warming and supported legislation to curb emissions. After he was elected, Mr. Obama promised ''a new chapter in America's leadership on climate change'' and arrived cavalry-like at the 2009 U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen to broker a global pact.
But two years later, now that nearly every other nation accepts climate change as a pressing problem, the United States has turned agnostic on the issue.
> www.power-eng.com: Global warming fades from U.S. spotlight; As other nations act, Americans become more skeptical about urgency
> www.independent.co.uk: Global warning: climate sceptics are winning the battle

Columbus' arrival linked to carbon dioxide drop
Minneapolis, October 13th, 2011 — By sailing to the New World, Christopher Columbus and other explorers who followed him may have set off a chain of events that cooled Europe’s climate.
> www.sciencenews.org: Columbus' arrival linked to carbon dioxide drop

Q & A on the Release of Climate Science 2009-2010

(wri.org), October 12, 2011 Today, WRI releases Climate Science 2009-2010, the latest installment in our periodic review of the state of play of the science of climate change. Co-authors Kelly Levin and Dennis Tirpak describe some of the latest climate science developments.
> insights.wri.org: Q & A on the Release of Climate Science 2009-2010

Air pollution hard to fight even in remote parts of northern Sweden

Credit: Photo: Eva Elke

(yeonthearctic.rcinet.ca) October 11, 2011 - The present high levels of nitrogen hydroxide and ground-level ozone in and around Norrbotten County in northern Sweden are making it difficult for the municipality to reach its clean air goals. At the moment, the air in this area is clean and healthy, but it may not stay this way.
> eyeonthearctic.rcinet.ca: Air pollution hard to fight even in remote parts of northern Sweden

The Baltic Sea contributes carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

Credit: Photography University of Gothenburg

(Physorg) October 11, 2011 - The Baltic Sea emits more carbon dioxide than it can bind. Local variations have increased the exposure of the Bay of Bothnia. These are the results from a study of how carbon dioxide flows between the water of the Baltic Sea and the atmosphere, carried out by scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
> www.physorg.com: The Baltic Sea contributes carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

India: Kerala churches reward big families

Credit: bbc.co.uk

London / Trivandrum, October 7 2011 - Several Christian parishes in the Indian state of Kerala have begun offering incentives to couples who produce more children, officials say. One church of the Syro-Malabar denomination in Kerala's Wayanad district has offered 10,000 rupees ($200) for a couple's fifth child. The move comes after a report submitted to Kerala's chief minister proposed imposing a strict two-child policy.
> www.eea.europa.eu: EU greenhouse gas emissions estimated to increase in 2010, but long-term decrease expected to continue

NEEM ice core drilling in Greenland provides comprehensive new results

Credit: www.physorg.com/Gertie Skaarup

Copenhagen, October 7 2011 - The drilling through the ice sheet at NEEM (77 N, 51V) was completed in August and now scientists can begin to review whether the drilling was a success. 14 nations participated in the scientific work at NEEM, a project of the International Polar Year. The primary scientific objective was to drill an ice core that contains ice from the present, the last ice age, the previous interglacial period (the Eemian) and the last ice age prior to that in order to study trends in the climate, greenhouse gasses and the chemical composition of the atmosphere over more than 150,000 years in an unbroken sequence of layers.
> www.physorg.com: NEEM ice core drilling in Greenland provides comprehensive new results

Climate fix tech test put on hold

Credit: bbc.co.uk

London, 1 October 2011 - A pioneering UK test of a potential technical fix for global warming will be delayed for six months while scientists discuss the project with stakeholders.
> www.bbc.co.uk: Climate fix tech test put on hold

Grappling with the Anthropocene: Scientists Identify Safe Limits for Human Impacts on Planet
New York, September 23 2011 - Scientists propose a list of planetary boundaries for human impacts ranging from biodiversity loss to the global nitrogen cycle.
> www.scientificamerican.com: Grappling with the Anthropocene: Scientists Identify Safe Limits for Human Impacts on Planet
See also:
> Living in the Anthropocene (Jan 24)
> The Anthropocene Debate (May 17 2010)
> It Is The Anthropocene Epoch (April 26, 2010)
> Earth 'entering new age of geological time' (March 27 2010)

> www.exactaweather.com: UK Long Range Weather Forecast - Winter 2011/2012

London, September 20 2011 - BRITAIN was warned yesterday of another big freeze this winter – with snow expected to sweep in as early as next month. Temperatures are forecast to drop to below average for the time of year over the next few months. The early onset of winter was predicted by experts at Exacta Weather.
Long-range forecaster James Madden said on its website: “As we head towards winter, I expect to see the first signs of some moderate to heavy snowfalls as early as October or November in certain parts of the UK.
“I expect December, January, and February to experience below-average temperatures, with the heaviest snowfalls occurring within the time frame of November to ­January across many parts of the UK.”
The UK and Ireland would be hit by ­“prolonged periods of extreme cold and snow from the Arctic regions as cold easterlies or north-easterlies develop”.
Mr Madden said: “Huge swirly low-­pressure systems also offer the potential for widespread disruption from heavy snowfall across many parts of the UK including the South, as they clash with the predominant cold air.”
> www.express.co.uk: Britain faces an early big freeze Winter 2011/2012
> (Back) to page in Dutch: The Horrorwinter of 2011 - 2012

UNGA President, UN Secretary-General Urge Leaders to Prioritize Sustainable Development
New York, September 21 2011 - The 66th UN General Assembly (UNGA) opened with calls from its President, Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, and the UN Secretary-General to address sustainable development as a top priority.
> climate-l.iisd.org: UNGA President, UN Secretary-General Urge Leaders to Prioritize Sustainable Development

Greenpeace's 40 years of activism prepare us for our greatest threat

Credit: greenpeace.org

London, September 15 2011 - Forty years ago today a small band of activists who had hired a fishing boat in Vancouver set sail for a small island off the coast of Alaska. Their aim was to halt a planned underground nuclear test by the Nixon administration, and although the attempt to prevent the explosion was thwarted by the US coastguard, something else was detonated as the crew of pacifist ecologists captured the imagination of people across the world and Greenpeace was born.
Greenpeace has shifted its campaign focus toward confronting polluting companies, away from lobbying deadlocked U.N. climate talks, the global head of the environmental group told Reuters on the eve of its 40th anniversary.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Greenpeace's 40 years of activism prepare us for our greatest threat
> www.guardian.co.uk: Greenpeace at 40: A global brand in good health or an out-of-touch bureaucracy?
> planetark.org: Greenpeace Shifts Climate Focus To Industry From U.N.

Globe had eighth warmest August on record

Credit: NOAA

Washington, September 15 2011 - The globe had its eighth warmest August since record keeping began in 1880, while June through August was the seventh warmest such period on record. The Arctic sea ice extent was the second smallest for August on record at 28 percent below average.
This monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.
Globe had eighth warmest August on record

More Americans believe world is warming: Reuters/Ipsos
Washington, September 15 2011 - More Americans than last year believe the world is warming and the change is likely influenced by the Republican presidential debates, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Thursday.
> planetark.org: More Americans believe world is warming: Reuters/Ipsos.

Water Evaporated from Trees Cools Global Climate, Researchers Find

Photo: enn.com

ScienceDaily (Sep. 14, 2011) — Scientists have long debated about the impact on global climate of water evaporated from vegetation. New research from Carnegie's Global Ecology department concludes that evaporated water helps cool Earth as a whole, not just the local area of evaporation, demonstrating that evaporation of water from trees and lakes could have a cooling effect on the entire atmosphere. These findings, published Sept. 14 in Environmental Research Letters, have major implications for land-use decision making.
> www.enn.com: Water Evaporated from Trees Cools Global Climate, Researchers Find

U.K. Researchers to Test "Artificial Volcano" for Geoengineering the Climate

Credit: Hugh Hunt, SPICE project

London, September 2 / 14 2011 - An experiment starting next month in the U.K. will pump water one kilometer into the air to test a new climate-cooling method that eventually could deliver sunlight-reflective sulfate particles into the stratosphere.
> www.physorg.com: British team set to field test gigantic balloon and water hose geo-engineering experiment (Sep 02)
> www.scientificamerican.com: U.K. Researchers to Test "Artificial Volcano" for Geoengineering the Climate
> www.independent.co.uk: High hopes for Norfolk's artificial volcano in fight against climate change (Sep 14)
> www.livescience.com: Climate-Cooling Balloon Put to First Test (Sep 14)

Past weather sheds new light on climate

Photo: www.metoffice.gov.uk / ACRE project

London, 13 September 2011 - A huge catalogue of old weather data, from the ships' logs of historic voyages to World War I Royal Navy records, is being used for an international project to recreate the world's past climate.
> www.metoffice.gov.uk: Past weather sheds new light on climate

Arctic monitoring stations hit by budget constraints

Image: Simmon/NASA

Montreal, September 12 2011 - In a year that saw the first genuine 'ozone hole' appear in the Northern Hemisphere, atmospheric scientists say they are shocked to learn that Environment Canada, the country's environment agency, has decided to drastically reduce its ozone science and monitoring programme.
> www.nature.com: A key source of information about the health of the ozone layer above the Arctic looks set to be choked off.

Monbiot: Think of a Tank
London, September 12, 2011 - Nadine Dorries won’t answer it. Lord Lawson won’t answer it. Michael Gove won’t answer it. But it’s a simple question, and if they don’t know it’s because they don’t want to. Where does the money come from? All are connected to groups whose purpose is to change the direction of public life. None will reveal who funds them.
> www.monbiot.com: Monbiot: Think of a Tank

Health fears over CO2 storage are unfounded, study shows
Edinburgh, September 12, 2011 - Capturing CO2 from power stations and storing it deep underground carries no significant threat to human health, despite recently voiced fears that it might, a study has shown.
> www.eurekalert.org: Health fears over CO2 storage are unfounded, study shows
> www.sciencedaily.com: Health Fears Over CO2 Storage Are Unfounded

John Sauven: 'I want to claim the arctic region for all of mankind'

Photo: ki price

London, September 12, 2011 - As his campaign group turns 40, Greenpeace director John Sauven tells Michael McCarthy how he plans to save the Pole from big oil.
> independent.co.uk: John Sauven: 'I want to claim the arctic region for all of mankind'
> Arctic is Melting: Arctic ice cover hits historic low: scientists
> Arctic Death Spiral Continues: Sea Ice Volume Hits Record Low for Second Straight Year (Sep 08 2011)

Hurricanes, floods and wildfires – but Washington won't talk global warming

Photograph: climatedepot.com

London, September 9, 2011 - America is seeing record-breaking extreme weather, yet the US political class is paralysed in climate change negligence.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Hurricanes, floods and wildfires – but Washington won't talk global warming

Climate Change Drives Migration
Mexico City, September 9, 2011 - "We planted our seeds, but the earth is no longer productive. We've had too much rain, even more than last year, and the harvest was ruined," says Ermelinda Santiago of the Me'phaa indigenous people, who like everyone else in the village of Francisco I. Madero has been affected by the impact of extreme weather on agriculture in southern Mexico.
> ipsnews.net: Climate Change Drives Migration

Global warming no hoax to insurance companies
New York, September 9 2011 — When it comes to global warming, it’s a tough call deciding whose hot air to believe: Al Gore or those AM radio right-wingers who call it hoax. To insurance companies global warming is no hoax. Severe weather is already costing us.
> www.marketwatch.com: Global warming no hoax to insurance companies

Sustainable development world's top issue: UN chief

Photograph: www.seeddaily.com

Sydney, September 8, 2011 - United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday singled out sustainable development as the top issue facing the planet with the world's seven billionth person expected to be born next month. Key to this was climate change, and he said time was running out with the population set to explode this century. "Next month, the seven billionth citizen of our world will be born," the UN secretary general said during a speech at Sydney University. "For that child, and for all of us, we must keep working ..."
> www.seeddaily.com: Sustainable development world's top issue: UN chief
> planetark.org: U.N. Chief Urges World To Redouble Efforts On Climate Talks
> www.un.org: UN chief stresses need to ‘connect the dots’ on sustainable development

The world needs to prepare for a climate sceptic defeating Obama
London, September 8 2011 - A year or so ago, the very idea that the most powerful person on the planet could, within just a couple of years, be someone who refuses to accept the science that underpins our knowledge of anthropogenic climate change was almost laughable.
> www.guardian.co.uk: The world needs to prepare for a climate sceptic defeating Obama

New Research Examines Role of Clouds in Climate Change

New York, September 7 2011 — New findings published Tuesday appear to undermine a controversial study - oft-cited by those who downplay the human impacts of climate change - that claimed variations in cloud cover are driving temperature changes across the globe.
The analysis confirms - as most atmospheric scientists have long held - that the reverse is true: Clouds change in response to temperature changes. There is no evidence clouds can cause meaningful climate change, concluded the report's author, Andrew Dessler, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University. "Suggestions that significant revisions to mainstream climate science are required are therefore not supported," he wrote.
> www.scientificamerican.com: New Research Examines Role of Clouds in Climate Change

Why We Need to Test Geoengineering soon

Washington, September 7 2011 — The writer and activist Bill McKibben has a saying: "You can't negotiate with the planet." What he means is that climate change will continue to unfold based on the amount of carbon we spew into the atmosphere—along with other physical factors—whether we chose to believe in it or not.
> ecocentric.blogs.time.com: Why We Need to Test Geoengineering — Soon

Increasing fragmentation of landscape threatens European wildlife
Copenhagen, September 5, 2011 - Roads, motorways, railways, intensive agriculture and urban developments are breaking up Europe’s landscapes into ever-smaller pieces, with potentially devastating consequences for flora and fauna across the continent, according to a new joint report from the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The report, 'Landscape fragmentation in Europe', demonstrates how areas of land are often unable to support high levels of biodiversity when they are split into smaller and smaller parcels.
> www.eea.europa.eu: Increasing fragmentation of landscape threatens European wildlife

Debt-choked Greece seeks solar bonanza
Athens, September 5, 2011 - Sun-baked and debt-choked Greece presented on Monday a plan to become Europe's solar energy powerhouse, attracting up to 20 billion euros of investment in the decades to come to lift its economy out of the doldrums.
> www.reuters.com: Debt-choked Greece seeks solar bonanza

Journal editor resigns over 'flawed' paper co-authored by climate sceptic

London, September 1 / 5 2011 — Prof Wolfgang Wagner wrote in an editorial published on Friday in Remote Sensing that he felt obliged to resign because it was now apparent to him that a paper entitled On the misdiagnosis of surface temperature feedbacks from variations in Earth's radiant energy balance by Roy Spencer and Danny Braswell, was "fundamentally flawed and therefore wrongly accepted by the journal". Spencer has frequently appeared in the rightwing media in the US criticising "climate alarmism" and is the author of a book called The Great Global Warming Blunder.
> www.realclimate.org: Resignations, retractions and the process of science (0609)
> wwwp.dailyclimate.org / Opinion: The damaging impact of Roy Spencer's science (0209)
> www.guardian.co.uk: Journal editor resigns over 'flawed' paper co-authored by climate sceptic (0209)
> www.bbc.co.uk: Journal editor resigns over 'problematic' climate paper (0209)
> Remote Sensing: Taking Responsibility on Publishing the Controversial Paper “On the Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedbacks from Variations in Earth’s Radiant Energy Balance” by Spencer and Braswell
> news.sciencemag.org: Journal Editor Resigns Over Contrarian Climate Paper (0209)
See also:
> www.realclimate.org: “Misdiagnosis of Surface Temperature Feedback”
> www.realclimate.org: Review of Spencer’s ‘Great Global Warming Blunder’

The White House And Tar Sands

Washington, September 3 2011 - Tar Sands Action organized a civil disobedience sit–in at The White House to oppose construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that began on August 20 and will culminate in a big rally on September 3rd. On August 29 I joined 60 religious leaders and other fellow protestors. I was arrested that day. But before I was handcuffed, I addressed fellow activists who had gathered outside The White House.
> www.countercurrents.org: The White House And Tar Sands

Smog Levels to Remain Higher than Scientists Suggest Safe for Public Health
New York, September 2, 2011 - The Obama administration has withdrawn regulations that would have prevented at least 1,500 deaths per year from unhealthy levels of smog in the air. Citing “regulatory uncertainty and regulatory burden” (read: jobs), the President stated on September 2 that he will not update a 2008 standard until 2013 (read: after the next presidential election, if ever).
> scientificamerican.com: Smog Levels to Remain Higher than Scientists Suggest Safe for Public Health

Last two winters' warm extremes more severe than their cold snaps

Washington, September 01 2011 — During the last two winters, some regions of the northern hemisphere experienced extreme cold not seen in recent decades. But at the same time, the winters of 2009-10 and 2010-11 were also marked by more prominent, although less newsworthy, extreme warm spells.
New research examines daily wintertime temperature extremes since 1948 The study finds that the warm extremes were much more severe and widespread than the cold extremes during the northern hemisphere winters of 2009-10 (which featured an extreme snowfall episode on the East Coast dubbed “snowmaggedon”) and 2010-11. Moreover, while the extreme cold was mostly attributable to a natural climate cycle, the extreme warmth was not, the study concludes.
> www.agu.org: Last two winters' warm extremes more severe than their cold snaps (Sep 01 2011)

Damage from Extreme Weather Increasing

New York, September 1 2011 - Hurricane Irene is part of a worsening trend. Weather disasters have grown more frequent and more costly over the past 30 years in the U.S., according to data that was released today by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
> blogs.scientificamerican.com: Damage from Extreme Weather Increasing

Climate change concern tumbles in US and China

London, August 30 2011 — A new survey shows 69% of global citizens are concerned about global warming, but opinion is sliding worryingly in the biggest polluting nations.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Climate change concern tumbles in US and China

Hazardous Keystone XL Pipeline Moves Forward Despite Protests Outside White House

Washington, August 29 / 30 2011 — The U.S. Department of State on Friday released the “final environmental impact statement” on the Keystone XL Pipeline, advancing the controversial project by choosing its construction as the proposed action. The timing of the release coincides with an ongoing civil disobedience campaign at the White House, where 275 peaceful protesters have already been arrested this week. The 1,700-mile pipeline would carry acidic crude oil from Canada’s Alberta tar sands — widely considered the dirtiest oil on the planet — to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. From Alberta to the Gulf, tar-sands oil will hurt endangered species and sensitive habitats and have an inordinate impact on global climate change. Extraction of oil from tar sands generates from two to four times the amount of greenhouse gases as conventional oil production.
> www.treehugger.com: US Plans to Export Oil from Keystone XL Tar Sands; It Won't Improve Energy Security
> www.enn.com: U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline
> planetark.org: U.S. Edges Closer To Decision On Canada Pipeline
> www.climateark.org / Action Alert: Tell President Obama Tar Sands Pipeline Approval Will Alienate Green Base, Cost Election, and Warrant Return of Nobel Peace Prize
> U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline

Amid Cheers, NASA Chief Is Arrested at Oil Sands Pipeline Protests

Washington, August 30 2011 - James Hansen, the 70-year-old renowned climate scientist, was the 112th of 140 arrested on day 10 of the Keystone XL pipeline sit-ins.
> solveclimatenews.com: Amid Cheers, NASA Chief Is Arrested at Oil Sands Pipeline Protests

Various aspects of Hurricane Irene

(Livescience), 27 August 2011 - The first hurricane of the season, Hurricane Irene is packing a punch, as the giant storm barrels up the east coast. Take a look at our complete coverage of the storm and basic science explainers.
> www.livescience.com: Hurricane Irene
> www.ucsusa.org: Hurricanes and Climate Change
> www.climatecentral.org: Quarter Million New Yorkers Reside Below Potential Storm Surge Level
> www.nytimes.com: Irene Batters New Jersey and New York
See a;so:
> Strong El Niño could bring increased sea levels, storm surges to U.S. East Coast (Jul 15)

Is It Wrong to Link Hurricane Irene to Global Warming?

New York, 27 August 2011 - Six years ago, experts waited until after Katrina to start arguing over whether the hurricane was a consequence, at least in part, of global warming. This week, pundits didn’t even wait for Irene to smash into the U.S. to start squabbling over the same question.
> blogs.scientificamerican.com: Is It Wrong to Link Hurricane Irene to Global Warming?

Irene’s Potential for Destruction Made Worse by Global Warming, Sea Level Rise

New York, 26 August 2011 - We're now a day out from Hurricane Irene’s projected landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina (or near-miss, and it doesn’t make a lot of difference which it is).
A day later — sometime Sunday, that is — the storm’s assault on the New York metropolitan area will begin. And unless Irene’s track veers sharply and unexpectedly out to sea, the Northeast will suffer its worst hurricane in decades.
The question: is this weather disaster caused by climate change?
> www.climatecentral.org: Wrong question

Irene another sign of global warming's impact (?)

New York, 26 August 2011 - We can now add Hurricane Irene among the symptoms that scientists warned we'd experience as global warming occurs. Wind of up to 100 mph, predicted to lash the East Coast. Ocean waves as high as 12 feet. That's in line with what scientists have said, that hurricanes would become more severe as ocean temperatures rise.
“Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming,” environmental activist Bill McKibben wrote Thursday night in The Daily Beast (see below). He argued that this year’s hot Atlantic Ocean temperatures and active spree of hurricanes — coupled with droughts, floods and melting sea ice elsewhere on the globe — are “what climate change looks like in its early stages.”
But not so fast, hurricane scientists say in politico.com: Not only is it impossible to tie any single hurricane to global warming, but researchers are also still fiercely debating whether the changing climate is making — or will make — tropical cyclones either stronger or more frequent.
> www.politico.com: Was Hurricane Irene caused by global warming? (Aug 26)
> www.nj.com: Hurricane another sign of global warming's impact (Aug 26)

Global Warming’s Heavy Cost

(Daily Beast) August 26 2011 - Hurricane Irene’s dangerous power can be traced to global warming says Bill McKibben—and Obama is at fault for his failed leadership on the environment.
> www.thedailybeast.com: Global Warming’s Heavy Cost (Aug 25)

U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline

(New York Times) August 26 / 29 2011 - The State Department gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from oil sands in Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast.
> www.nytimes.com: U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline
> www.climateark.org: ction Alert: Tell President Obama Tar Sands Pipeline Approval Will Alienate Green Base, Cost Election, and Warrant Return of Nobel Peace Prize

Top NASA Scientist: If Obama Approves Keystone XL, All His Climate Talk is 'Greenwashing'

(Treehugger.com) August 26 2011 - James Hansen is one of the world's foremost climate scientists. He's arguably done more pioneering work in the field than any other American scientist -- and he's repeatedly testified before Congress and appealed to the White House, stating the dangers climate change poses to the nation.
He's also been really good at putting his money where his mouth is; risking arrest to protest polluting practices in acts of civil disobedience. He'll be heading down to join the protesters that have taken to the White House to rally against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which Hansen has said would mean "game over" for the global climate if approved.
> www.treehugger.com: Top NASA Scientist: If Obama Approves Keystone XL, All His Climate Talk is 'Greenwashing'
> www.columbia.edu / Jim Hansen: The White House & Tar Sands
> www.columbia.edu / Jim Hansen: The Day that Millions Cried

Fewer Americans See Climate Change a Threat, Caused by Humans
August 26, 2011 Though climate change hasn't received quite the same attention it had back in 2006 and 2007, it's not too surprising that the vast majority of Americans still know at least something about it. But what they know exactly is changing, and national politics certainly seems to be playing a part.
According to a Gallup poll released Friday, 96 percent of Americans in 2010 said they know a great deal or something about climate change. And while that's down 1 percentage point from 2007 to 2008, it's not a significant change, especially considering how media attention to the issue has dropped off quite significantly since around 2007, when coverage was at its peak.
> www.usnews.com: Fewer Americans See Climate Change a Threat, Caused by Humans
> www.usnews.com: Do Americans Care About Climate Change Anymore?
> www.zdnet.com / Gallup: Americans less likely to view climate change as threat

The CERN/CLOUD results are surprisingly interesting…

Geneve, 24 August 2011 - The long-awaited first paper from the CERN/CLOUD project has just been published in Nature. The paper, by Kirkby et al, describes changes in aerosol nucleation as a function of increasing sulphates, ammonia and ionisation in the CERN-based ‘CLOUD’ chamber. Perhaps surprisingly, the key innovation in this experimental set up is not the presence of the controllable ionisation source (from the Proton Synchrotron accelerator), but rather the state-of-the-art instrumentation of the chamber that has allowed them to see in unprecedented detail what is going on in the aerosol nucleation process .
> www.nature.com: Cloud formation may be linked to cosmic rays

Cloud formation may be linked to cosmic rays

Geneva, August 24 2011 - It sounds like a conspiracy theory: 'cosmic rays' from deep space might be creating clouds in Earth's atmosphere and changing the climate. Yet an experiment at CERN, Europe's high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, is finding tentative evidence for just that.
> www.nature.com: Cloud formation may be linked to cosmic rays

Climate cycles drive civil war

London, August 24 2011 - Natural climate cycles seem to have a striking influence on war and peace around the equator. Tropical countries face double the risk of armed conflict and civil war breaking out during warm, dry El Niño years than during the cooler La Niña phase of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), according to an analysis published today in Nature.
> www.nature.com: Climate cycles drive civil war
> www.nature.com: Civil conflicts are associated with the global climate (Payment required)

Federal auditors find no evidence to support 'Climategate' accusations

(Daily Climate / thinkprogress.org / mcall.com) August 22 / 24, 2011 - National Science Foundation inspector general closes its investigation into Penn State climatologist Michael Mann after failing to find "any direct evidence of research misconduct."
The findings "completely vindicate" climate scientists, said liberal blogger Joe Romm, who first broke news of the NSF report on his website, Climate Progress, and who lamented the lack of attention such investigations have received compared to the uproar accompanying the emails' release two years ago.
> www.mcall.com: Penn State researcher cleared anew over global warming emails
> wwwp.dailyclimate.org: Federal auditors find no evidence to support 'Climategate' accusations
> thinkprogress.org / Climate Secret: NSF Quietly Closes Out Inspector General Investigation with Complete Vindication of Michael Mann

As the dream of economic growth dies, a new plan awaits testing

London, 23 August 2011 - How much of this is real? How much of the economic growth of the past 60 years? Of the wealth and comfort, the salaries and pensions that older people accept as normal, even necessary? How much of it is an illusion, created by levels of borrowing – financial and ecological – that cannot be sustained? Go to Ireland and you'll see that even bricks and mortar are a mirage: the marvels of the new economy, built on debt, stand empty and worthless.
> www.guardian.co.uk / George Monbiot: As the dream of economic growth dies, a new plan awaits testing

Outlook gloomy on global warming: Deutsche analyst
August 23, 2011 - Deutsche Bank's head of carbon emissions research Mark Lewis can't see how the world can avoid dangerous global warming - judged as greater than two degrees Celsius - based on the targets agreed at climate change summits in Copenhagen and Cancun.
> www.brisbanetimes.com.au: Outlook gloomy on global warming: Deutsche analyst

Australia Passes CO2 Offset Laws, Carbon Pricing Next

August 23, 2011 - Australia's parliament endorsed the world's first national scheme that regulates the creation and trade of carbon credits from farming and forestry on Monday, to complement government plans to put a price on carbon emissions from mid-2012.
The laws, the first major bills passed by the government with Greens support in the Senate since the Greens took the balance of power on July 1, are a precursor to the carbon price legislation to be put before parliament later this year.
Known as the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), the new laws allow farmers and investors to generate tradeable carbon offsets from farmland and forestry projects. Land use including agriculture accounts for 23 percent of Australian emissions.
> planetark.org: Australia Passes CO2 Offset Laws, Carbon Pricing Next
> planetark.org: Anti-Government Truckers Besiege Australian Parliament
> "Lady Gillard must confront climate change" (March 01)

A volcanic idea to reverse climate change
(Physorg.com), August 22, 2011 Scientists believe that our warming world may face catastrophic changes to its natural environment, including droughts, rising oceans and fiercer, more frequent hurricanes.
> www.physorg.com: A volcanic idea to reverse climate change

How the N2O greenhouse gas is decomposed

(Physorg.com), August 22, 2011 — Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a harmful climate gas. Its effect as a greenhouse gas is 300 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. Nitrous oxide destroys the ozone layer. In industrial agriculture, it is generated on excessively fertilized fields when microorganisms decompose nitrate fertilizers. Decomposition of nitrous oxide frequently is incomplete and strongly depends on environmental conditions. Researchers from Freiburg, Constance, and KIT have now identified the structure of the enzyme that decomposes nitrous oxide and the decomposition mechanism. Their results are published in the Nature journal.
> www.physorg.com: How the N2O greenhouse gas is decomposed

Newly Discovered Icelandic Current Could Change North Atlantic Climate Picture

(ScienceDaily) Aug. 21, 2011 — An international team of researchers, including physical oceanographers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), has confirmed the presence of a deep-reaching ocean circulation system off Iceland that could significantly influence the ocean's response to climate change in previously unforeseen ways.
> www.sciencedaily.com: Newly Discovered Icelandic Current Could Change North Atlantic Climate Picture

In Warming World, Critters Run to the Hills

(Science), 18 august 2011 - A heat wave is sweeping the planet, and animals and plants are making a break for cooler climes. Or so scientists have always assumed. It's been hard to tie a species' migration directly to climate change, particularly with human activity destroying ecosystems every year. But researchers have now gathered more evidence for that link by compiling data from 54 scientific papers that collectively map the habitat ranges of more than 2000 species during the past 4 decades. On average, the team finds, creatures move both up mountains and farther away from the equator at a speed that keeps pace with the rate of climate change and at a pace that is far faster than previously predicted.
> news.sciencemag.org: In Warming World, Critters Run to the Hills
> planetark.org: Wildlife Responds Fast To Climate Change: Study

World nations see six all-time record high temperatures, no lows so far in 2011

(enn.com), August 18 2011 - Eight months into the year, six nations have seen record high temperatures, including Kuwait, Iraq, Armenia, Iran, and Republic of the Congo, reports Jeff Master's Wunderblog. To date no record lows have been recorded in any country in the world so far. This is similar, though not quite as extreme, to last year when twenty countries broke all time highs with none hitting an all time low.
> www.enn.com: World nations see six all-time record high temperatures, no lows so far in 2011
> www.climatecentral.org: Globe Records its Seventh-Warmest July on Record, Arctic Melt Speeds Up
> www.ncdc.noaa.gov: State of the Climate / Global Analysis

Mekong dolphins on brink of extinction

(enn.com) - August 18 2011 - The population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River numbers just 85 individuals and may be on the brink of extinction, according to research by WWF. The researchers also found that calf survival was very low and that the overall population is in decline. A small population living on the border of Cambodia and Lao People's Democratic Republic may be in an even more perilous situation, with just 7 or 8 individuals. This is the only area in Lao PDR where dolphins remain.
> www.enn.com: Mekong dolphins on brink of extinction
> www.arkive.org: The World's most endangered species

Open-sourcing tomorrow's policy breakthroughs on MIT's Climate CoLab
(Cambridge, MA) - August 17 2011 - Inspired by systems like Wikipedia and Linux, the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence has developed an exciting open on-line forum, the Climate CoLab, for creating, discussing and advancing proposals on what to do about climate change and the green economy.
By engaging a broad range of scientists, policy makers, business people, and concerned citizens, we hope this forum will help develop - and gain support for - sustainable development proposals that are better than any that would have emerged otherwise.
Groups with an interest in climate, green economy and Rio+20 are warmly invited to get involved by circulating this opportunity to their networks (see the short intro text below) - and also by joining as individuals then adding new policy proposals on the Climate CoLab.
> climatecolab.org

China To Double Solar Capacity By Year End: Report
(Planet Ark) - 15 August 2011 - China will double its solar capacity to around 2 gigawatts (GW) by the end of the year as the world's largest solar-panel maker ramps up domestic installation, a local paper said on Saturday citing a government-linked think tank.
> planetark.org: China To Double Solar Capacity By Year End: Report

Drought Deepens In South; Texas Driest In Century

(Planet Ark), 12 august 2011 - A devastating drought deepened over the last week in many areas, spreading through more of the Plains and going into the Midwest as triple-digit temperatures baked already thirsty crops and livestock.
July 2011 brought excessively hot weather to much of the United States, stressing electric power grids, exacerbating droughts, and causing dozens of heat-related deaths. Nearly 200 million Americans already know this without a map; the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) estimates that at least that many people have been affected by the heat wave.
> planetark.org: Drought Deepens In South; Texas Driest In Century
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Heat Wave Across the United States

Solarplaza Top 10 Solar PV power plants

Rotterdam, August 11, 2011 – Solarplaza has released a new Top 10 overview on its website (www.solarplaza.com), this time listing the largest Solar PV power plants in the world. Key findings: The world's biggest single solar PV project is located in Canada and is 92 megawatts in size. Eight out of the ten biggest solar PV projects are located in Europe. Within the larger Top 30 this number is twenty-six, with most plants located in Germany, followed by Spain and then Italy. The cumulative capacity of the Top 10 largest PV projects is 648 MW. For the whole Top 30 that number is 1.3 GW.
> solarplaza.com: Solarplaza Top 10 Solar PV power plants

CMIP5 simulations
Real Climate, 11 August 2011 - Climate modeling groups all across the world are racing to add their contributions to the CMIP5 archive of coupled model simulations. This coordinated project, proposed, conceived and specified by the climate modeling community itself, will be an important resource for analysts and for the IPCC AR5 report (due in 2013), and beyond.
> www.realclimate.org: CMIP5 simulations

NOAA: Unbearably and persistently hot

Washington, August 9, 2011 - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has compiled and analyzed climate data for the United States in the month of July. The results will come as no surprise for many in the country, but now there is solid data to back up what we all know. In brief, it was hot, unbearably and persistently hot. Only now, a week into the month of August, has the heat begun to dissipate for the northern half of the country. The scorching July has shattered records in many places, making it the fourth warmest July on record in the US.
> www.enn.com: NOAA Releases July Climate Assessment
> www.drought.gov: US Seasonal Drought Outlook
> www.noaanews.noaa.gov: Heat wave leads to fourth warmest July on record for the U.S.

Arctic open for exploitation: Obama administration grants Shell approval to drill
Washington, August 9, 2011 - Less than a year and a half after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration has bucked warnings from environmentalists to grant preliminary approval to oil giant, Royal Dutch Shell, to drill off the Arctic coast. Exploratory drilling will occur just north of the western edge of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the Beaufort Sea, home to bowhead and beluga whales, seals, walruses, polar bears, and a wide-variety of migrating birds.
> www.enn.com: Arctic open for exploitation: Obama administration grants Shell approval to drill

Why we need to stop trying to 'save the planet' and just realise our place in it

(Ecologist), August 9, 2011 - In an extract from his new book the Jolly Pilgrim, Peter Baker argues that a Gaian consciousness is slowly emerging out of our efforts to overcome climate change and other environmental challenges.
> www.theecologist.org: Why we need to stop trying to 'save the planet' and just realise our place in it

Did Past Climate Change Encourage Tree-Killing Fungi?

(ScienceDaily), August 7, 2011 - The demise of the world's forests some 250 million years ago likely was accelerated by aggressive tree-killing fungi triggered by global climate change, according to a new study by a University of California, Berkeley, scientist and her Dutch and British colleagues.
> www.sciencedaily.com: Did Past Climate Change Encourage Tree-Killing Fungi?

NOAA study: Slowing climate change by targeting gases other than carbon dioxide

Washington, August 3 2011 - Carbon dioxide remains the undisputed king of recent climate change, but other greenhouse gases measurably contribute to the problem. A new study, conducted by NOAA scientists and published online today in Nature, shows that cutting emissions of those other gases could slow changes in climate that are expected in the future.
> www.noaanews.noaa.gov: Slowing climate change by targeting gases other than carbon dioxide'
> Methane hydrate melt

Polar Bear Researcher Suspended, Spurring Alarm

Washington, July 29, 2011 - The suspension of a wildlife biologist known for his research on drowned polar bears is causing confusion and alarm in scientific circles.
Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, (BOEMRE) was placed on administrative leave on July 18 pending the conclusion of an Inspector General investigation into "integrity issues," according to the suspension order.
Monnett had been questioned by the Interior Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in February about a 2006 research article published in the journal Polar Biology, in which he reported observations of drowned polar bears in the Beaufort Sea. In the article, Monnett and his co-authors speculate that bear drownings could increase if continued climate change resulted in less ice cover in the Arctic. The work was cited in the 2006 Al Gore documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth."
> www.livescience.com: Polar Bear Researcher Suspended, Spurring Alarm
> www.alaskaconservationsolutions.com: Observations of mortality associated with extended open-water swimming

Climate Change Debunked? Not So Fast

Sydney, July 28, 2011 - New research suggesting that cloud cover, not carbon dioxide, causes global warming is getting buzz in climate skeptic circles. But mainstream climate scientists dismissed the research as unrealistic and politically motivated.
"It is not newsworthy," Daniel Murphy, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) cloud researcher, wrote in an email to LiveScience.
The study, published July 26 in the open-access online journal Remote Sensing, got public attention when a writer for The Heartland Institute, a libertarian think-tank that promotes climate change skepticism, wrote for Forbes magazine that the study disproved the global warming worries of climate change "alarmists."
However, mainstream climate scientists say that the argument advanced in the paper is neither new nor correct. The paper's author, University of Alabama, Huntsville researcher Roy Spencer, is a climate change skeptic and controversial figure within the climate research community.
> www.space.com: Climate Change Debunked? Not So Fast

The Breivik manifesto and the Monckton connection

Sydney, July 26, 2011 - Conspiracy theorists can easily be dismissed or even laughed off as unthinking, sometimes paranoid ideologues with a tainted view on society.
Their language is often wrapped around power and freedom and speaks of global threats to undermine “our” way of life.
Some outspoken deniers of the risk the world faces from human-caused climate change will often evoke such rhetoric, claiming efforts to legislate to cut emissions of greenhouse gases are socialist or communist plots to redistribute wealth.
But most who believe this rhetoric would never think of turning to force. Anders Behring Breivik did. The 32-year-old Norwegian Christian fundamentalist is facing trial for the massacre of 76 people in a shooting and bombing attack in Oslo.
Revealed in his online manifesto is a deep paranoia of “Marxists” and of Islam. But Breivik also accepted the conspiratorial thinking of some climate sceptics.
> www.crikey.com.au: The Breivik manifesto and the Monckton connection

Living With the Greenhouse Effect

New York, July 21, 2011 - “Living with the greenhouse effect” was the subtitle of Andrew Revkin's October 1988, cover story for Discover Magazine — his first lengthy exploration of the science pointing to a growing human influence on climate. The cover line on the piece, which followed a scorching summer across much of the country, was, “This summer was merely a warmup.”
> dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com: Living With the Greenhouse Effect
> History of the Greenhouse-effect: Endless Summer—Living With the Greenhouse Effect (october 2009 / October 1988)

Climate sceptics get too much air-time, BBC told
London, July 21, 2011 - Climate sceptics who do not believe that man-made emissions of carbon dioxide are contributing to global warming have had too much air-time on the BBC as a result of its public broadcasting remit to be impartial, an inquiry has found.
> www.independent.co.uk: Climate sceptics get too much air-time, BBC told
> www.bbc.co.uk: BBC science coverage given "vote of confidence" by independent report
> www.bbc.co.uk: Review of impartiality and accuracy of the BBC's coverage of science / Full report in pdf

Defying climate deal like appeasing Hitler-UK minister
London, July 21, 2011 - World leaders who oppose a global agreement to tackle climate change are making a similar mistake to the one made by politicians who tried to appease Adolf Hitler before World War Two, a British government minister said on Thursday.
> af.reuters.com: Defying climate deal like appeasing Hitler-UK minister

Lessons from Past Climate Predictions: Wallace Broecker

(Sceptical Science), July 18, 2011 - Wallace Broecker was among the first climate scientists to use simple climate models to predict future global temperature changes. His 1975 paper Climatic Change: Are We on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming? is widely credited with coining the term "global warming".
> www.skepticalscience.com: Lessons from Past Climate Predictions: Wallace Broecker
> Stefan Rahmstorf: 25 Years of Global Warming (in Dutch)

Global warming: study finds natural shields being weakened
July 16, 2011 - The soil and the ocean are being weakened as buffers against global warming, in a vicious circle with long-term implications for the climate system, say two new investigations.
If the seas and the land are less able to soak up or store greenhouse gases, more of these carbon emissions will enter the atmosphere, holding in even more heat from the sun.
A study published in Nature on Thursday says a gradual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) over the last half-century has accelerated the release of methane and nitrous oxide in the soil.
These gases are respectively 25 and 300 times more effective at trapping radiation than CO2, the principal greenhouse gas by volume.
> www.independent.co.uk: Global warming: study finds natural shields being weakened
> www.nature.com: Increased soil emissions of potent greenhouse gases under increased atmospheric CO2

Accelerating Impacts from Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Threaten Human Rights
Washington, D.C., July 13, 2011 - Climate pollutant emissions violate human rights and require rapid reductions to protect the world’s most vulnerable people, according to a joint submission to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights by the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA) in Argentina and the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development (IGSD) in Washington, D.C., and Geneva.
> www.enn.com: Global warming: Accelerating Impacts from Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Threaten Human Rights

“Worst Food Crisis of the 21st Century” Driven by “Worst Drought in 60 Years” in East Africa, as Climate Change Makes Reduced Rainfall a “Chronic Problem”

July 5 / 13 2011 - “This is the worst food crisis of the 21st Century and we are seriously concerned that large numbers of lives could soon be lost.”
That’s from Jane Cocking, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Director, who along with the Save The Children organization, is calling for $144 million in aid to malnourished East Africans. “Aid agencies are calling it the worst drought in 60 years,” reports ClimateWire/NYT.
> planetark.org: In The Horn Of Africa, Drought Threatens Millions
> thinkprogress.org / Joe Romm: “Worst Food Crisis of the 21st Century” Driven by “Worst Drought in 60 Years” in East Africa, as Climate Change Makes Reduced Rainfall a “Chronic Problem”
> www.nytimes.com: Africa Drought Endangers Millions
> reliefweb.int: Eastern Africa: Drought – Humanitarian Snapshot (as of 28 Jun 2011)

U.N. Says Struggling With Growing Somali Exodus
GENEVA, 13 July 2011 - The United Nations said on Tuesday it was struggling to keep up with an exodus of hungry Somali refugees and many emaciated children were dying of malnutrition along the way or after arriving in neighboring countries.
> planetark.org: EU.N. Says Struggling With Growing Somali Exodus

Gemasolar solar thermal power plant supplies power for 24 hours straight

New York, July 11 2011 - The Gemasolar power plant near Seville, Spain, becomes the first commercial solar thermal power plant to supply uninterrupted power for a full 24 hours, according to builders Torresol Energy.
In contrast to photovoltaic solar cells, which use the sun’s light to generate electricity, solar thermal plants use the sun’s heat to run steam turbines and generate electricity. One of the biggest advantages of using heat is that it can be stored more easily than light, allowing for electricity production to continue even after the sun sets.
> www.physorg.com: Gemasolar solar thermal power plant supplies power for 24 hours straight (July 11 2011)

Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change

New York, July 8 2011 - (by James E. Hansen and Makiko Sato) - Paleoclimate data help us assess climate sensitivity and potential human-made climate effects. Hansen and Sato conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods of the past million years was less than 1°C warmer than in the Holocene.
> Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change

Business Blocks Climate Targets
Strasbourg, July 6, 2011 (IPS) - A crucial proposal to move to higher climate targets in the EU was resolutely voted down Tuesday after amendments by Conservatives heavily watered down the proposal. Several members of parliament blame business lobbying for the loss, even though dozens of corporations called out for higher climate goals.
> www.ipsnews.net: Business Blocks Climate Targets

Asia Pollution Blamed For Halt In Warming: Study

London, July 5 2011 - Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulphur's cooling effect, even though greenhouse gas emissions soared, a U.S. study said on Monday.
The paper raised the prospect of more rapid, pent-up climate change when emerging economies eventually crack down on pollution.
> www.bbc.co.uk: Global warming lull down to China's coal growth
> www.physorg.com: Global warming pause linked to sulfur in China
> Kaufmann et al: Reconciling anthropogenic climate change with observed temperature 1998–2008

U.S. National Parks' Cultural and Natural Resources Threatened

Washington, July 1 2011 - Unchecked development, thousands of invasive species, climate change, and reduced budgets and staff all threaten America's national parks, says a decade-long study released earlier this week by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group. Also at risk, according to the study, are millions of artifacts, from Native American cultures to more recent historic events, largely because these items either are not being protected or have never been cataloged.
> news.sciencemag.org: U.S. National Parks' Cultural and Natural Resources Threatened

Jellyfish shut down nuclear reactors
London, June 30 2011 - Both reactors at a nuclear power station have been shut down after high volumes of jellyfish were found on seawater filter screens.
The units at Torness power station, on the coast near Dunbar in East Lothian, were closed down manually on Tuesday.
EDF Energy, which operates the plant, said the reactors were shut down as a precautionary measure and the public had not been in danger. The screens filter out debris in cooling water entering the plant.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Jellyfish shut down nuclear reactors (June 30 2011)

Nuclear waste requires cradle-to-grave strategy
London, June 30 2011 - After Fukushima, it is now imperative to redefine what makes a successful nuclear power program -- from cradle to grave. If nuclear waste management is not thought out from the beginning, the public in many countries will reject nuclear power as an energy choice, according to research that appears today in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by SAGE.
> www.eurekalert.org: Nuclear waste requires cradle-to-grave strategy
> More on Fukushima

British government's plan to play down Fukushima

London, June 30 2011 - British government officials approached nuclear companies to draw up a co-ordinated public relations strategy to play down the Fukushima nuclear accident just two days after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and before the extent of the radiation leak was known.
Internal emails seen by the Guardian show how the business and energy departments worked closely behind the scenes with the multinational companies EDF Energy, Areva and Westinghouse to try to ensure the accident did not derail their plans for a new generation of nuclear stations in the UK.
"This has the potential to set the nuclear industry back globally," wrote one official at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), whose name has been redacted. "We need to ensure the anti-nuclear chaps and chapesses do not gain ground on this. We need to occupy the territory and hold it. We really need to show the safety of nuclear."
Officials stressed the importance of preventing the incident from undermining public support for nuclear power.
> www.guardian.co.uk: British government's plan to play down Fukushima
> www.guardian.co.uk: UK government and nuclear industry email correspondence after the Fukushima accident

Fears grow over Commission’s ability to support emissions trading
Brussels, 30 June 2011 - There are growing concerns that the European Commission is either unwilling or unable to support a robust carbon market – risking low and volatile carbon prices, or at worse the complete collapse of the market.
Last week, the carbon market went into a nosedive following the publication of a proposed energy efficiency directive that threatens to dampen demand for EU allowances (EUAs) – and therefore carbon prices. The directive was the latest in a series of bearish signals for the market, which contributed to, at its worst, a low of €11.71 ($16.87) on Monday from above €17 in early May.
> ww.environmental-finance.com: Fears grow over Commission’s ability to support emissions trading

Multiple ocean stresses threaten “globally significant” marine extinction

Amsterdam, 20 June 2011 - An international panel of experts warns in a report released today that marine species are at risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.
> www.iucn.org: Multiple ocean stresses threaten “globally significant” marine extinction (Jun 20 2011)

Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show
London, June 22 2011 - One of the world's most prominent scientific figures to be sceptical about climate change has admitted to being paid more than $1m in the past decade by major US oil and coal companies.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Climate sceptic Willie Soon received $1m from oil companies, papers show

Al Gore Blasts Obama On Climate Change For Failing To Take 'Bold Action'

Washington, June 22 2011 - Former Vice President Al Gore is going where few environmentalists - and fellow Democrats - have gone before: criticizing President Barack Obama's record on global warming.
In a 7,000-word essay for Rolling Stone magazine that will be published Friday, Gore says Obama has failed to stand up for "bold action" on global warming and has made little progress on the problem since the days of Republican President George W. Bush. Bush infuriated environmentalists for resisting mandatory controls on the pollution blamed for climate change, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that the burning of fossil fuels is responsible.
> www.huffingtonpost.com: Al Gore Blasts Obama On Climate Change For Failing To Take 'Bold Action'
> www.rollingstone.com: Climate of Denial

The IPCC and Greenpeace: Renewable outrage

London, June 17 2011 - The release of the full text of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Renewable Energy this week has led to a new set of questions about the panel’s attitudes, probity and reliabilty: is it simply a sounding board for green activists? The answer is no—but that doesn’t mean it’s without serious problems.
> www.economist.com: The IPCC and Greenpeace: Renewable outrage

Contra's:
> www.marklynas.org: Questions the IPCC must now urgently answer
> www.thegwpf.org: IPCC WG3 and the Greenpeace Karaoke
> climateaudit.org: IPCC WG3 and the Greenpeace Karaoke

Pro::
> Stephan Singer: Yes, I am biased as well, I am Director for Energy Policy at WWF

More about the report itself:
> srren.ipcc-wg3.de: Overview of IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy
> srren.ipcc-wg3.de: Potential of Renewable Energy Outlined in Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Press release)
> srren.ipcc-wg3.de: Potential of Renewable Energy Outlined in Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (SPM)
> srren.ipcc-wg3.de / IPCC SRREN: Full Report

The Greenpeace Energy Evolution Report:
> www.greenpeace.org: Energy Revolution: a sustainable pathway to a clean energy future for Europe
> www.greenpeace.org: Energy Revolution: a sustainable pathway to a clean energy future for Europe (pdf 32 pages)

Britain's hot spring could be result of shrinking Arctic

London, June 5 2011 - The weather that has brought drought and baking heat to much of Britain can be blamed on a block of high pressure air that has stubbornly refused to shift itself from the British Isles. Normally this block would have been restricted to the Azores and the mid-Atlantic, but it has spread to Britain. Wet winds have been deflected from the airspace above the nation, as a result, and farmers have been left to cope with dried-up rivers and parched soil – although forecasters warned on Saturday that the hot weather would disappear this week, bringing cooler conditions in its wake.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Britain's hot spring could be result of shrinking Arctic

Death threats sent to top climate scientists
Sydney, June 4, 2011 - Several of Australia's top climate change scientists at the Australian National University have been subjected to a campaign of death threats, forcing the university to tighten security.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Death threats sent to top climate scientists

C40 Summit: Megacity Mayors Leading The Fight For Sustainable Survival

Sao Paulo, 31 May 2011 - Leaders of the world’s megacities are meeting in Sao Paulo this week for a major climate summit, the fourth meeting of the C40 Climate Leadership Group. From Michael Bloomberg of New York City to Kuma Demeksa of Addis Ababa, the mayors and top deputies attending represent 297 million people — four percent of the world’s population — ten percent of global greenhouse pollution, and 18 percent of global economic output.
In 2005, the former mayor of London, Ken Livingston, founded the C20, comprised of twenty of the largest multi-million-person cities in the world, He recognized that where national governments were not doing enough, cities could do a lot more, especially the mayors of large cities who have statutory powers outside of national government. As the group has met — 2005 in London, 2007 in New York City, 2009 in Seoul, and now in Sao Paulo, the group has grown into the C40, with affiliated cities like Portland that are climate leaders.
In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress Green, the manager of the C40 Climate Leadership Group, Simon Reddy explained how the group works together.
> thinkprogress.org / C40 Summit: Megacity Mayors Leading The Fight For Sustainable Survival

Prospect of limiting the global increase in temperature to 2ºC is getting bleaker

Paris, 30 May 2011 - Energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2010 were the highest in history, according to the latest estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
After a dip in 2009 caused by the global financial crisis, emissions are estimated to have climbed to a record 30.6 Gigatonnes (Gt), a 5% jump from the previous record year in 2008, when levels reached 29.3 Gt.
In addition, the IEA has estimated that 80% of projected emissions from the power sector in 2020 are already locked in, as they will come from power plants that are currently in place or under construction today.
This means that the goal of preventing a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees Celsius – which scientists say is the threshold for potentially "dangerous climate change" – is likely to be just "a nice Utopia", according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the IEA. It also shows the most serious global recession for 80 years has had only a minimal effect on emissions, contrary to some predictions.
Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire. "These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path ... would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.
> www.skepticalscience.com: IEA CO2 Emissions Update 2010 - Bad News
> www.iea.org: Prospect of limiting the global increase in temperature to 2ºC is getting bleaker
> www.guardian.co.uk: Worst ever carbon emissions leave climate on the brink
> www.guardian.co.uk: Copenhagen climate summit: Five possible scenarios for our future climate
> Media buitenland / Four Degrees and Beyond (Special Issue Journal) (Nov 2010)

Germany's Merkel Backs Nuclear Exit Within A Decade

Berlin, May 23 2011 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday backed proposals to shut down all of the country's 17 nuclear power plants within about a decade.
Speaking at a meeting of the Christian Social Union (CSU), Bavarian sister party to her conservatives, Merkel said a 2022 date proposed by the CSU was appropriate and that her government will eventually fix a date for Germany's nuclear exit.
"I find that the timeframe which the CSU sees as an option is an appropriate timeframe," she said at the event in Bavaria.
"People want to know there is a concrete end date and so we will speak of such a concrete end date," Merkel added. Her cabinet plans to make a decision on June 6.
> planetark.org: Germany's Merkel Backs Nuclear Exit Within A Decade

Climate change, a disaster in the making

Sydney, 23 May 2011 – "The atmosphere is warming, the ocean is warming, ice is being lost from glaciers and ice caps, and sea levels are rising."
This is the dramatic conclusion of scientists who say climate change cannot be denied - but carbon offsetting is not enough to stop it.
The findings are included in the first report by the newly created Climate Commission. It warns people are to blame for rising temperatures, with the last decade the hottest on record. "The biological world is changing in response to a warming world," The Critical Decade: Climate Science Risks and Responses report says.
Climate change, a disaster in the making
www.smh.com.au: Warming jury finds dire need for action

Want to Know Your Grandchildren's Future? Read 2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming

This New Kindle Single E-book by scientist Dr. James Powell reveals what the future of humanity and your grandchildren may be like if we do not curtail global warming.
By 2084, higher temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, famine, disease, and wars, including nuclear wars, have caused the worst devastation in human history, as though every catastrophe of the last 2,000 years has happened at once. No one escapes the consequences of the Great Warming.
> www.prweb.com: Want to Know Your Grandchildren's Future? Read 2084: An Oral History of the Great Warming
> James Lawrence Powell

Editorial Boards of Washington Post, LA Times, Pen Scathing Warnings on Climate

May 21, 2011 - Congress requested that the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences examine the problem of climate change and make recommendations for action. The report, "America's Climate Choices," to no one's surprise, reaffirmed anthropogenic climate change and found that a price on carbon is necessary. Yet House Speaker John Boehner continues to do nothing and Texas Rep. Joe Barton, senior Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, dismissed the report out of hand.
> www.treehugger.com: Editorial Boards of Washington Post, LA Times, Pen Scathing Warnings on Climate

NRC sums up America's Climate Choices ... and they haven't changed
May 12 / 21, 2011 - A year after weighing in on climate science as well as options for mitigation and adaptation, the National Research Council has issued its summary report on global warming policy in the United States. And although the political climate in Washington has changed substantially in the past year, it turns out that the choices facing America global warming remain the same.
> blogs.nature.com:NRC sums up America's Climate Choices ... and they haven't changed
> dels.nas.edu: America's Climate Choices (2011)

Allegedly Plagiarized Climate Study Won't Stifle Debate

May 21 2011 - The news that a 2008 study widely cited by global warming deniers has been retracted likely won't end the contentious debate. The paper, known widely as the Wegman report and published in the journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, was retracted because of serious flaws including instances of repeating discredited claims, alleged plagiarism, and a lack of peer-review prior to publication, the journal indicated.
> news.yahoo.com: Allegedly Plagiarized Climate Study Won't Stifle Debate
> news.yahoo.com: Professor's Study Used Wikipedia to Debunk Global Warming Statistics
> www.usatoday.com: Climate study gets pulled after charges of plagiarism
> dirtyenergymoney.com: Where Joe Barton's Money comes from

U.S. National Academies Call for Strong Federal Climate Policy

May 18 2011 - A decade or so ago, when geophysicists and policy wonks started to talk about climate change rather than global warming, certain people seemed to think this represented some kind of insidious propaganda. Actually it just reflected an awareness that some of the consequences of global warming may be counter-intuitive or not what comes right to mind: increased winter precipitation, springtime flooding, more violent storminess, and so on.
> spectrum.ieee.org: U.S. National Academies Call for Strong Federal Climate Policy

UN climate change chief urges governments to accelerate talks on emissions reduction

New York, 12 May 2011 – The top United Nations climate change official today urged governments to step up the pace of negotiations on the further reduction of emissions of the hazardous greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, ahead of the next UN climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, in December. Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said States needed to agree on the strengthening of international conditions to allow nations to work together to make deeper global emission cuts.
> www.un.org: UN climate change chief urges governments to accelerate talks on emissions reduction

Research Panel Says Climate Change Doubts Slow Urgent Action
Washington, May 12 2011 - Public misconceptions of climate change have thwarted urgently needed U.S. efforts to reduce emissions blamed for global warming, according to a report from the National Research Council of the National Academies.
> www.bloomberg.com: Research Panel Says Climate Change Doubts Slow Urgent Action (May 11)
> finance.yahoo.com: Panel says US must act now to curb global warming

German Day on Biomass at the 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition in Berlin
(ENN) - 6 May 2011 – The German Day on Biomass will take place in Berlin, Germany, on the occasion of the 19th European Biomass Conference (6-10 June 2011) and Exhibition (6-9 June 2011). On Thursday, 9 June 2011, crucial questions on the challenges of biomass in the different fields of biomass end use in Germany will be addressed during this parallel event.
> www.enn.com: German Day on Biomass at the 19th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition in Berlin l

"Our Crushing Dilemmas"

London, May 5 2011 – (By George Monbiot) - How do environmentalists fight without losing what we’re fighting for? In my column earlier this week, I discussed the crisis the environment movement is now confronting. I’m using this essay to expand on the problems I mentioned there, and in particular to consider the most interesting of the responses to the crisis proposed so far, by Paul Kingsnorth. Let me begin by spelling out, at greater length, the dilemmas we face.
> www.monbiot.com: Our Crushing Dilemmas (May 05)
> www.monbiot.com: The Lost World (May 02)

Statement by Andrew Steer, Special Envoy for Climate Change, World Bank Group on new Report by the AMAP
Washington, May 4, 2011 – Andrew Steer, Special Envoy for Climate Change, World Bank Group today issued the following statement on the new report by the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, the scientific arm of the eight-nation Arctic Council.
> web.worldbank.org: The findings in the new report from the AMAP are a cause for great concern
> Arctic Assessment: "Global sea level is projected to rise by 0.9–1.6 meter by 2100"

Storm warning
(Nature), 4 May 2011 - Political hostility over global-warming policy in the United States is causing collateral damage. Plans for a National Climate Service deserve better.
> www.nature.com: Storm warning (May 04)

Climate scientists told to 'stop speaking in code'

Copenhagen, May 4 2011 – Scientists at a major conference on Arctic warming were told Wednesday to use plain language to explain the dramatic melt in the region to a world reluctant to take action against climate change.
An authoritative report released at the meeting of nearly 400 scientists in Copenhagen showed melting ice in the Arctic could help raise global sea levels by as much as 5 feet this century, much higher than earlier projections.
James White, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, told fellow researchers to use simple words and focus on the big picture when describing their research to a wider audience. Focusing too much on details could blur the basic science, he said: "If you put more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, it will get warmer."
> news.yahoo.com: Climate scientists told to 'stop speaking in code'
> Sea level rise: Seas could rise up to 1.6 meters by 2100 (May 03)

Why 450 ppm is not a safe target
Sceptical Science, May 4 2011 - A target of 450 parts per million (ppm) CO2 in the atmosphere is widely regarded as synonymous with keeping mean global temperature by 2100 to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This is very misleading and dangerous. For reasons set out below, achievement of that target, probably by 2030, is likely to result in mean global temperatures dangerously in excess of the predicted 2°C.
> www.skepticalscience.com: Why 450 ppm is not a safe target

2 °C or not 2 °C? That is the climate question

London, May 4 2011 - Targets to limit the global temperature rise won't prevent climate disruption. Tim Lenton says that policy-makers should focus on regional impacts.
> www.nature.com: 2 °C or not 2 °C? That is the climate question

World Population to reach 10 billion by 2100

New York, May 3 2011 - The current world population of close to 7 billion is projected to reach 10.1 billion in the next ninety years, reaching 9.3 billion by the middle of this century, according to the medium variant of the 2010 Revision of World Population Prospects, the official United Nations population projections prepared by the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is being launched today.
Much of this increase is projected to come from the high-fertility countries, which comprise 39 countries in Africa, nine in Asia, six in Oceania and four in Latin America.
> esa.un.org / Press release: World Population to reach 10 billion by 2100 if Fertility in all Countries Converges to Replacement Level

Climate Change Denial book now available!

London, April 29 2011 - The book examines the phenomenon of climate change denial. It looks at the many techniques of literal denial, where 'skeptics' deny the evidence for man-made global warming. It exposes denial within governments, who make a lot of noise about climate change but fail to back it up with action. And it examines the denial within most of us, when we let denial prosper. This book explains the climate science and the social science behind denial.
Climate change can be solved – but only when we cease to deny that it exists. This book shows how we can break through denial, accept reality, and thus solve the climate crisis. It will engage scientists, university students, climate change activists as well as the general public seeking to roll back denial and act.
> www.skepticalscience.com: Climate Change Denial book now available!

How climate change deniers led me to set up Skeptical Science website
London, April 29 2011 - What began as a family discussion ended up as a wider frustration that deniers are given an equal footing as the overwhelming evidence they refuse to accept.
> www.guardian.co.uk: How climate change deniers led me to set up Skeptical Science website

Chinese emissions: these, too, shall peak

London, April 29, 2011 - The largest source of uncertainty in global climate models isn't clouds or ocean circulation but humans. And one of the largest sources of human uncertainty at present is China, whose spectacular rise has left the world awestruck and fearful of greenhouse gas emissions yet to come. Now a group of researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California suggests that there are limits to Chinese growth.
> blogs.nature.com: Chinese emissions: these, too, shall peak
> tamino.wordpress.com: The China Syndrome

A Cost of Denying Climate Change: Accelerating Climate Disruptions, Death, and Destruction
28 April, 2011 - Violent tornadoes throughout the southeastern U.S. must be a front-page reminder that no matter how successful climate deniers are in confusing the public or delaying action on climate change in Congress or globally, the science is clear: Our climate is worsening.
More extreme and violent climate is a direct consequence of human-caused climate change. There is a reason it isn't called global warming anymore. Higher temperatures are only one -- and not the most worrisome -- of the consequences of a changing climate.
Climate scientists cannot attribute any particular tornado, or flood event, or drought, or hurricane to human-induced climate change. But climate science tells us unambiguously that we are changing the climate and trapping more energy on the planet.
> www.huffingtonpost.com: A Cost of Denying Climate Change: Accelerating Climate Disruptions, Death, and Destruction

Carbon cuts by developed countries cancelled out by imported goods

London, April 25, 2011 - Cuts in carbon emissions by developed countries since 1990 have been cancelled out many times over by increases in imported goods from developing countries such as China, according to the most comprehensive global figures ever compiled.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Carbon cuts by developed countries cancelled out by imported goods
> www.physorg.com: Study shows developed nation's reduction in CO2, outpaced by developing country emissions

A year on, Gulf still grapples with BP oil spill
(Reuters), April 15, 2011 - When a BP oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last April, killing 11 workers, authorities first reported that no crude was leaking into the ocean. They were wrong.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials discussing how to influence the work of scientists.
www.reuters.com: A year on, Gulf still grapples with BP oil spill (Apr 15 2011)
> www.guardian.co.uk: Emails expose BP's attempts to control research into impact of Gulf oil spill

Study reveals cost of nitrogen pollution
(PhysOrg.com), April 11, 2011 Nitrogen pollution costs Europe between 70 and 320 billion euros ($100bn-$460bn) per year in its impact on health and the environment, according to a major European study launched in Britain on Monday.
> www.physorg.com: Study reveals cost of nitrogen pollution

Ancient fossils hold clues for predicting future climate change, scientists report

(PhysOrg.com), April 8, 2011 - By studying fossilized mollusks from some 3.5 million years ago, UCLA geoscientist Aradhna Tripati and colleagues have been able to construct an ancient climate record that holds clues about the long-term effects of Earth's current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change.
> www.physorg.com: Ancient fossils hold clues for predicting future climate change, scientists report
> Last time carbon dioxide levels were this high: 15 million years ago, scientists report (Oct 7 2009)

Record loss of ozone over Arctic

Brussels, April 4, 2011 - ESA’s Envisat satellite has measured record low levels of ozone over the Euro-Atlantic sector of the northern hemisphere during March.
This record low was caused by unusually strong winds, known as the polar vortex, which isolated the atmospheric mass over the North Pole and prevented it from mixing with air in the mid-latitudes.
This led to very low temperatures and created conditions similar to those that occur every southern hemisphere winter over the Antarctic.
As March sunlight hit this cold air mass it released chlorine and bromine atoms – ozone-destroying gases that originate from chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and break ozone down into individual oxygen molecules – predominantly in the lower stratosphere, around 20 km above the surface.
> www.esa.int: Record loss of ozone over Arctic

Nuclear safer than coal, Chinese atomic official says
Beijing, March 25, 2011 - Even in the wake of Japan's Fukushima nuclear crisis, nuclear power remains a safer and cleaner choice for China than coal, Pan Ziqiang, the chairman of the science and technology committee at the China National Nuclear Corporation, said on Friday.
> www.reuters.com: Nuclear safer than coal, Chinese atomic official says
> More on Fukushima

German Green Industries Say Can Fill Nuclear Gaps

Berlijn, March 16, 2011 - German renewable industry lobby BEE said on Wednesday it would be able to supply 47 percent of German power requirements by 2020, joining a debate on how to replace nuclear generation capacity.
The lobby, which groups 22 individual units representing wind, hydro, solar and biomass-to-power producer interests, said it could offer a high share of reliable renewable supply.
"Renewables could be ready to provide 47 percent of German power supply up to 2020. This way they would not just compensate for the nuclear withdrawal (meant to happen by 2021 at the latest) but in addition offer affordable and sustainable power," the group said.
> planetark.org: German Green Industries Say Can Fill Nuclear Gaps
> More on Fukushima

Analysis: World to warm if Japan panic spreads
London, March 16, 2011 - Global warming will intensify if leading carbon emitter China drops the world's most ambitious nuclear power building program and Germany shuts down its nuclear plants amid panic over Japan's atomic energy crisis.
> www.reuters.com: World to warm if Japan panic spreads
> More on Fukushima

EU mulls nuclear-free future, extra tests on reactors

Brussels , March 16 2011 - Europe's energy chief Tuesday raised the prospect of a nuclear-free future and said the 27-nation bloc is considering "stress testing" its nuclear power stations to check they can cope with crises.
The developments mark a dramatic turnaround for a continent that had been considering a nuclear revival until this week, when Japan's nuclear disaster highlighted how quickly events can run out of control, and not only after an earthquake.
> www.reuters.com: EU mulls nuclear-free future, extra tests on reactors

Fewer Americans worry about climate change: poll
London, March 16, 2011 - The number of Americans who are worried about global warming has fallen to nearly the historic low reached in 1998, a poll released Monday showed.
Just 51 percent of Americans - or one percentage point more than in 1998 - said they worry a great deal or fair amount about climate change, Gallup's annual environment poll says.
In 2008, a year after former US vice president Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize, two-thirds of Americans were concerned about climate change.
The rate of concern among Americans has fallen steadily since then to 60 percent in 2009 and 52 percent last year.
> www.independent.co.uk: Fewer Americans worry about climate change: poll

UNEP Report Highlights Threats to Bees

New York , 10 March 2011 - The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report titled "Global Honey Bee Colony Disorders and Other Threats to Insect Pollinators," which shows that bee colonies worldwide are under threat, with serious consequences for biodiversity and food security.
> climate-l.iisd.org: UNEP Report Highlights Threats to Bees
> www.unep.org: Global Honey Bee Colony Disorders and other Trheats to Insect Pollinators
> planetark.org: Bee Deaths May Signal Wider Pollination Threat: U.N.

Debunking the stubborn myth that only industrial ag can ‘feed the world’

(Grist) March 10 2011 - (Tom Philpott) - I've written about it once already, but I want to return to The Economist's recent special series about how industrial agriculture is the true and only way to feed the 9 billion people who will inhabit the world by 2050. The framing, I think, is extremely interesting.
> www.grist.org: Debunking the stubborn myth that only industrial ag can ‘feed the world’ 86

BESC scores a first with isobutanol directly from cellulose

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., March 7, 2011 — In the quest for inexpensive biofuels, cellulose proved no match for a bioprocessing strategy and genetically engineered microbe developed by researchers at the Department of Energy's BioEnergy Science Center.
Using consolidated bioprocessing, a team led by James Liao of the University of California at Los Angeles for the first time produced isobutanol directly from cellulose. The team's work, published online in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, represents across-the-board savings in processing costs and time, plus isobutanol is a higher grade of alcohol than ethanol.
> www.ornl.gov: BESC scores a first with isobutanol directly from cellulose
> www.engineer.ucla.edu: UCLA's James Liao receives Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from EPA
> www.eurekalert.org: UCLA engineers demonstrate use of proteins as raw material for biofuels, biorefining (Mar 07)
> www.nature.com: Direct photosynthetic recycling of carbon dioxide to isobutyraldehyde (15 November 2009)

Tim DeChristopher's Speech after Guilty Verdict: "The ocean that shapes the shore."

Salt Lake City (USA), March 03, 2011 - A jury in Salt Lake City just convicted our friend Tim DeChristopher as guilty for his brave actions to block a bogus auction of oil leases in Utah. Tim's actions have already inspired thousands of people to help escalate the growing movement for climate justice. His words are also an inspiration. Take a look at the video and transcript of the speech he gave while leaving the courthouse this afternoon.
> www.350.org: Tim DeChristopher's Speech after Guilty Verdict: "The ocean that shapes the shore."

A country with no time for climate change scepticism

New York, March 03, 2011 - THE struggle to persuade the inhabitants of industrialised nations to rein in their carbon emissions is well documented, but how is climate change viewed by people in developing countries? My research in Uganda provides some surprising insights. Opposing the scientific consensus on climate change has become something of an article of faith for the socially conservative religious right in the US. But in Uganda - a deeply religious and superstitious nation infamous for its rampant homophobia - climate change scepticism is nowhere to be seen.
> www.newscientist.com: The attitude of those at the sharp end of climate change has important lessons for us all

"Lady Gillard must confront climate change"

Canberra (AUS), March 01, 2011 - Aren't things getting dramatic in federal politics? Suddenly every policy issue is a bomb about to go off with no one knowing who it will destroy — a leader, a party, a government.
A carbon tax is now back on the agenda — despite the PM explicitly promising that there wouldn't be one — and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has been running the hyperbole at high volume since the announcement. This was a ''betrayal'', there would be a ''people's revolt'' — all a bit OTT. But he may have had something when, last week in Parliament, he compared Julia Gillard to Lady Macbeth.
> www.scientificamerican.com: Which Nations Are Most at Risk from Climate Change?

‘Fracking’ Comes to Europe, Sparking Rising Controversy
Yale, 28 February 2011 - As concerns grow in the U.S. about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract natural gas from shale, companies have set their sights on Europe and its abundant reserves of this “unconventional” gas. But from Britain to Poland, critics warn of the potentially high environmental cost of this looming energy boom.
> e360.yale.edu: ‘Fracking’ Comes to Europe, Sparking Rising Controversy

Which Nations Are Most at Risk from Climate Change?

New York, February 26 2011 - The international community faces the daunting task of determining which countries face the most significant impacts from global warming. Is it worse to be swallowed by the sea or racked by famine?
As climate change tightens its grip on the world, institutions charged with protecting the most vulnerable nations could be faced with just such a question. Because there is no international consensus for ranking the possibilities of future devastation -- and because there are limited dollars lined up to help cope with climate change -- some countries already are battling over who will be considered most vulnerable.
> www.scientificamerican.com: Which Nations Are Most at Risk from Climate Change?
> www.physorg.com: Mapping human vulnerability to climate change

Ancient Catastrophic Drought Leads to Question: How Severe Can Climate Change Become?
ScienceDaily (Feb. 24, 2011) — How severe can climate change become in a warming world? Worse than anything we've seen in written history, according to results of a study recently appearing in the journal Science.
> wwww.sciencedaily.com: Ancient Catastrophic Drought Leads to Question: How Severe Can Climate Change Become?
> www.sciencemag.org: Catastrophic Drought in the Afro-Asian Monsoon Region During Heinrich Event 1

Robot Wars
London, February 23 2011 - Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren’t what they seem to be. The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns, which create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. For example, there’s a long history of tobacco companies creating astroturf groups to fight attempts to regulate them.
> www.monbiot.com: Robot Wars

House Republicans cut funding to UN climate science body
Washington, February 21 2011 – America is to cut off all funding to the United Nations climate science panel under sweeping Republican budget cuts that seek to gut spending on environmental protection.
The funding ban to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – stripping $2.3m (£1.31m) from an international organisation that relies heavily on volunteer scientists – was among some $61bn (£38bn) in cuts voted through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Saturday.
> www.guardian.co.uk: House Republicans cut funding to UN climate science body
> www.guardian.co.uk: Republicans propose $1.6bn cut to Environmental Protection Agency

US has modest goals for S. Africa climate talks
Johannesburg, February 21 2011 – The U.S. does not expect this year's climate change conference in South Africa to yield a binding international agreement to stop global warming, the top U.S. negotiator said Monday.
But Todd Stern, on the first of what he said would be several visits to South Africa before the Durban talks open in late November, said he does expect progress on several fronts, including some of particular concern to Africa, the continent expected to be hardest hit by climate change.
> news.yahoo.com / AP: US has modest goals for S. Africa climate talks

Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say

February 20, 2011 - A growing, more affluent population competing for ever scarcer resources could make for an "unrecognizable" world by 2050, researchers warned at a major US science conference Sunday.
> www.physorg.com: Planet could be 'unrecognizable' by 2050, experts say
> www.redorbit.com: Global Warming To Have Human Impact Within 30 Years

Fewer big fish in the sea, say scientists

February 20, 2011 - Fewer big, predatory fish are swimming in the world's oceans because of overfishing by humans, leaving smaller fish to thrive and double in force over the past 100 years, scientists said Friday.
Big fish such as cod, tuna, and groupers have declined worldwide by two-thirds while the number of anchovies, sardines and capelin has surged in their absence, said University of British Columbia researchers.
Meanwhile, people around the world are fishing harder and coming up with the same or fewer numbers in their catch, indicating that humans may have maxed out the ocean's capacity to provide us with food.
> www.independent.co.uk: Fewer big fish in the sea, say scientists
> www.independent.co.uk: Out with tuna, in with sardines – a recipe for saving the seas
> www.eurekalert.org: Fishing down food web leaves fewer big fish, more small fish in past century: UBC research

Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead

Brussels, 17 February 2011 - Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.
> www.physorg.com: Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead
> news.sciencemag.org: Methane From Oil Spill Migrating Undigested?

Climate’s Strong Fingerprint In Global Cholera Outbreaks
Yale, February 17 2011 - For decades, deadly outbreaks of cholera were attributed to the spread of disease through poor sanitation. But recent research demonstrates how closely cholera is tied to environmental and hydrological factors and to weather patterns — all of which may lead to more frequent cholera outbreaks as the world warms.
> e360.yale.edu: Climate’s Strong Fingerprint In Global Cholera Outbreaks

Extreme weather getting worse - and climate change to blame, studies say

London, Februari 16 2011 - Extreme rainstorms and snowfalls have grown substantially stronger, two studies suggest, with scientists for the first time finding the telltale fingerprints of man-made global warming on downpours that often cause deadly flooding.
Two studies in Wednesday's issue of the journal Nature link heavy rains to increases in greenhouse gases more than ever before.
> www.theglobeandmail.com: Extreme weather getting worse - and climate change to blame, studies say

Warming Arctic brings invasion of southern species

Yale, February 14 2011 - Grizzly bears mating with polar bears and exotic diseases making their way into once-isolated polar realms are just two of the effects of soaring Arctic temperatures.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Warming Arctic brings invasion of southern species

Cyclone adds to Barrier Reef's flood woes

February 6, 2011 Hammered by a monster cyclone just weeks after flooding spewed toxic waste into its pristine waters, Australia's Great Barrier Reef could face a slow recovery due to climate change, experts warn.
Yasi, a top-category storm, ripped through Australia's northeast tourist coast, levelling houses and decimating crops as it hit land near the city of Cairns, gateway to the Reef.
Though it is too early to assess the extent of the damage, marine experts said the sprawling coral structure was bound to have been harmed by Yasi's blistering 290 kilometre (180 mile) per hour winds.
"Cyclones do damage reefs," Nick Graham, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, told AFP.
"They tend to be be particularly damaging in shallow waters, so they can break corals and kill areas of live coral, so you get a reduction of coral cover.... And that then can have a knock-on effect," Graham said.
> www.physorg.com: Cyclone adds to Barrier Reef's flood woes

Future cyclones could be more extreme: Garnaut
Brisbane, February 4, 2011 - Cyclone Yasi is probably early real-world evidence of scientific predictions that global warming will lead to more extreme weather events, according to the government's expert climate change adviser, Professor Ross Garnaut.
He says that if it is, given the evidence that global warming is tracking at the highest end of international predictions, then future cyclones could prove that we ''ain't seen nothing yet''.
> www.brisbanetimes.com.au: Cyclone adds to Barrier Reef's flood woes

China's drought may have serious global impact

Beijng, February 4, 2011 - Wide swathes of northern China are suffering through their worst drought in 60 years -- a dry spell that could have a serious economic impact worldwide if it continues much longer, experts say.
> www.physorg.com: China's drought may have serious global impact

Catastrophic drought in the Amazon

February 3, 2011 - New research shows that the 2010 Amazon drought may have been even more devastating to the region's rainforests than the unusual 2005 drought, which was previously billed as a one-in-100 year event.
Analyses of rainfall across 5.3 million square kilometres of Amazonia during the 2010 dry season, published tomorrow in Science, shows that the drought was more widespread and severe than in 2005. The UK-Brazilian team also calculate that the carbon impact of the 2010 drought may eventually exceed the 5 billion tonnes of CO2 released following the 2005 event, as severe droughts kill rainforest trees. For context, the United States emitted 5.4 billion tonnes of CO2 from fossil fuel use in 2009.
> www.independent.co.uk: Special report: Catastrophic drought in the Amazon
> www.bbc.co.uk: Amazon drought 'severe' in 2010, raising warming fears
> www.physorg.com: Two severe Amazon droughts in 5 years alarms scientists
> news.mongabay.com: Amazon drought continues, worst on record (Dec 11 2010)
> Brazil unveils fresh aid for Amazon drought (Oct 28 2010)

The Energy Report, 100% renewable energy by 2050

London, February 3 2011 - The world needs to transition from its current unsustainable energy paradigm to a future powered by entirely renewable energy supply. Only by making such a transition will we be able to avoid the very worst impacts of climate change.
WWF’s ground-breaking energy study - The Energy Report - shows that this future is within our reach, and provides a vital insight into how it can be achieved.
Two years in preparation, The Energy Report is a provocative vision of a world run entirely on renewable energy by 2050. It comes in 2 parts: The first part seeks to generate a discussion around the comprehensively researched scenario that is presented in the 2nd part, conducted by project partner consultancy Ecofys.
> wwf.panda.org: "The Energy Report, 100% renewable energy by 2050"

Wolverine population threatened by climate change

February 3, 2011 - (physorg.com / ucar.edu) - The aggressive wolverine may not be powerful enough to survive climate change in the contiguous United States, new research concludes.
> www.physorg.com: Wolverine population threatened by climate change
> www2.ucar.edu: Wolverine population threatened by climate change

Defra's UK climate-proofing plans unveiled

January 28, 2011 - Roads built to the same standards as the scorching south of France; fish moved from the overheated Lake District to cooler waters in Scotland; lighthouses threatened by rising seas.
From measures in use already to seemingly far-fetched scenarios for the future, these are some of the findings in the first batch of climate adaptation plans submitted to the environment ministry Defra.
Under the Climate Change Act, 91 major organisations responsible for key aspects of national infrastructure have to explain how they will cope if the climate alters as forecast.
The latest projections suggest the potential for major change - for example that it is "very likely" that southern England will on average be 2.2-6.8C warmer by the 2080s.
That range of possible warming reveals the huge uncertainties inherent in climate forecasting. Nevertheless the aim of the studies is to ensure that long-term planning takes account of the possible risks.
> www.bbc.co.uk: Defra's UK climate-proofing plans unveiled

More frequent drought likely in eastern Africa

January 28, 2011 The increased frequency of drought observed in eastern Africa over the last 20 years is likely to continue as long as global temperatures continue to rise, according to new research published in Climate Dynamics.
> www.physorg.com: More frequent drought likely in eastern Africa

Ban Ki-moon ends hands-on involvement in climate change talks

New York, January 27 2011 - Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general who made global warming his personal mission, is ending his hands-on involvement with international climate change negotiations.
In a strategic shift, Ban will redirect his efforts from trying to encourage movement in the international climate change negotiations to a broader agenda of promoting clean energy and sustainable development, senior UN officials said.
> www.guardian.c.uk: Ban Ki-moon ends hands-on involvement in climate change talks
> www.guardian.c.uk: Ban Ki-moon's green growth agenda can bring climate to the heart of the UN

Efficiency could cut world energy use over 70 per cent
New York, January 26, 2011 - Simple changes like installing better building insulation could cut the world's energy demands by three-quarters, according to a new study.
Discussions about reducing greenhouse gas emissions usually concentrate on cleaner ways of generating energy: that's because they promise that we can lower emissions without having to change our energy-hungry ways. But whereas new generation techniques take years to come on stream, efficiency can be improved today, with existing technologies and know-how.
> www.newscientist.com: Efficiency could cut world energy use over 70 per cen

Obama was wrong not to mention climate change in his State of the Union
Washington, January 26 2011 - In his 2009 State of the Union-esque speech, Obama spoke of "saving our planet from the ravages of climate change." In his 2010 SOTU, he affirmed the "overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change." In 2011, fresh off the hottest year on record, Obama said ... nothing about climate change. It didn't come up.
This is a failure on Obama's part. A moral failure, a failure of leadership, but also, a political failure.
Andy Revkin and Bryan Walsh both note the obvious reason for the omission: climate change has become a "partisan issue." It's "divisive." As Revkin says, Obama is trying to "build a new American energy conversation on points of agreement rather than clear ideological flash points like global warming." I understand that. But I think capitulating to that logic is myopic and counterproductive.
> www.grist.org: Obama was wrong not to mention climate change in his State of the Union

Dramatic greenhouse gas cuts are both achievable and affordable

New York, January 25, 2011 - Dramatic cuts in industrial emissions of the global warming greenhouse gases that threaten to drastically change Earth’s climate are achievable in both developed and developing countries at acceptable cost with the right policies, the United Nations reported today.
In a series of studies, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), an agency mandated to promote sustainable industrial development in developing countries, highlighted the need to combine energy efficiency, renewable energy and the capture and storage of greenhouse carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to stay below the danger threshold of an average temperature rise of two degrees above pre-industrial levels by 2050.
> www.un.org: Dramatic greenhouse gas cuts are both achievable and affordable
> www.unido.org: Reducing industrial CO2 emmisions at reasonable cost focus of new UNIDO reports
> www.unido.org: Publications / Industrial Energy Efficiency and Climate Change

Climate change study provides greenhouse-gas emissions for 100 cities in 33 nations
New York, January 25 2011 - Policymakers need to take a fresh look at the differences between greenhouse gas emissions from different cities to identify new opportunities to mitigate climate change, says a forthcoming study in the peer-reviewed journal Environment and Urbanization published by Sage Publications and the International Institute for Environment and Development.
The study provides greenhouse gas emissions for over 100 cities in 33 countries and suggests policy tools that city governments can use to take action on climate change.
> www.iied.org: Climate change study provides greenhouse-gas emissions for 100 cities in 33 nations

Living in the Anthropocene: Toward a New Global Ethos

Yale, January 24 2011 - A decade ago, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Paul Crutzen first suggested we were living in the “Anthropocene,” a new geological epoch in which humans had altered the planet. Now, in an article for Yale Environment 360, Crutzen and a coauthor explain why adopting this term could help transform the perception of our role as stewards of the Earth.
> e360.yale.edu: Living in the Anthropocene: Toward a New Global Ethos
See also:
> The Anthropocene Debate (May 17 2010)
> It Is The Anthropocene Epoch (April 26, 2010)
> Earth 'entering new age of geological time' (March 27 2010)

New model of man's role in climate change
January 24, 2011 - The Roman Conquest, the Black Death and the discovery of America -- by modifying the nature of the forests -- have had a significant impact on the environment. These are the findings of Swiss scientists who have researched our long history of emitting carbon into the environment.
> www.physorg.com: New model of man's role in climate change
> Forests: How Genghis Kahn cooled the planet (Jan 20)

Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change

Figure 7 of James E. Hansen and Makiko Sato's article: Five-meter sea level change in 21st century under assumption of linear change (Alley, 2010) and exponential change (Hansen, 2007), the latter with a 10-year doubling time. [Note that scale on vertical axis is in meters. ed.]

New York , January 18 / 21 2011 - (By James E. Hansen and Makiko Sato) - Milankovic climate oscillations help define climate sensitivity and assess potential human-made climate effects. We conclude that Earth in the warmest interglacial periods was less than 1°C warmer than in the Holocene and that goals of limiting human-made warming to 2°C and CO2 to 450 ppm are prescriptions for disaster.
Polar warmth in prior interglacials and the Pliocene does not imply that a significant cushion remains between today's climate and dangerous warming, rather that Earth today is poised to experience strong amplifying polar feedbacks in response to moderate additional warming.
Deglaciation, disintegration of ice sheets, is nonlinear, spurred by amplifying feedbacks. If warming reaches a level that forces deglaciation, the rate of sea level rise will depend on the doubling time for ice sheet mass loss.
Gravity satellite data, although too brief to be conclusive, are consistent with a doubling time of 10 years or less, implying the possibility of multi-meter sea level rise this century.
The emerging shift to accelerating ice sheet mass loss supports our conclusion that Earth's temperature has returned to at least the Holocene maximum. Rapid reduction of fossil fuel emissions is required for humanity to succeed in preserving a planet resembling the one on which civilization developed.
> www.columbia.edu / James E. Hansen and Makiko Sato: Paleoclimate Implications for Human-Made Climate Change (Jan 18)
> climateprogress.org: Must-read Hansen and Sato paper: We are at a climate tipping point that, once crossed, enables multi-meter sea level rise this century (Jan 20)
See also
> Thaw Of Earth's Icy Sunshade May Stoke Warming / Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008 (Jan 16)

2010 equals record for world’s warmest year

Geneva, 20 January 2011 (WMO) - The year 2010 ranked as the warmest year on record, together with 2005 and 1998, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Data received by the WMO show no statistically significant difference between global temperatures in 2010, 2005 and 1998.
In 2010, global average temperature was 0.53°C (0.95°F) above the 1961-90 mean. This value is 0.01°C (0.02°F) above the nominal temperature in 2005, and 0.02°C (0.05°F) above 1998. The difference between the three years is less than the margin of uncertainty (± 0.09°C or ± 0.16°F) in comparing the data.
These statistics are based on data sets maintained by the UK Meteorological Office Hadley Centre/Climatic Research Unit (HadCRU), the U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
> www.wmo.int: 2010 equals record for world’s warmest year
> earthobservatory.nasa.gov: Different Records, Same Warming Trend
> www.nasa.gov: NASA Research Finds 2010 Tied for Warmest Year on Record
> www.wmo.int: New Climate Data Shows Warming World: WMO
> www.climatecentral.org: It’s Official: 2010 in a Statistical Tie for Warmest Year On Record
> Global temperature records in close agreement, despite subtle differences (Jan 14)
> NOAA: 2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record (Jan 12)
> NASA: 2010 Meteorological Year Warmest Ever (Dec 10)
> 2010 could yet be the hottest year on record (Jan 10, 2010)

Renewables could supply 99.5% of power by 2050: Greenpeace
London, January 20, 2011 - Renewable energies could furnish 99.5 percent of European Union electricity needs by 2050 if nuclear loses its priority access to distribution networks, Greenpeace said in a report released Tuesday.
> www.independent.co.uk: Renewables could supply 99.5% of power by 2050: Greenpeace

Obama, Hu Agree to Combat Climate Change, Urged to Do More

Washington, DC, January 19, 2011 (ENS) - Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao of China, who is in Washington on an official state visit, said in a joint statement this afternoon that they "view climate change and energy security as two of the greatest challenges of our time." In an open letter today, U.S. environmental leaders urged the presidents to adopt "a wartime-like mobilization" to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
> www.ens-newswire.com: Obama, Hu Agree to Combat Climate Change, Urged to Do More

Climate Models Are Becoming Increasingly Accurate

January 19 2011 - Predicting future climates on planet Earth is an extremely hard task due to the myriad of factors involved. To make the necessary calculations requires computers with capacities far beyond the average home computer. However, climate models are become ever more reliable thanks not only to greater computing power, but also to more extensive observation efforts of the current climate, and an improved understanding of the climate system.
> www.enn.com: Climate Models Are Becoming Increasingly Accurate

Can We Trust Climate Models? Increasingly, the Answer is ‘Yes’

Yale, January 18 2011 - Forecasting what the Earth’s climate might look like a century from now has long presented a huge challenge to climate scientists. But better understanding of the climate system, improved observations of the current climate, and rapidly improving computing power are slowly leading to more reliable methods.
> e360.yale.edu: Can We Trust Climate Models? Increasingly, the Answer is ‘Yes’

Thaw Of Earth's Icy Sunshade May Stoke Warming

Oslo, January 17 2011 - Shrinking ice and snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere is reflecting ever less sunshine back into space in a previously underestimated mechanism that could add to global warming, a study showed.
> www.planetark.org: Thaw Of Earth's Icy Sunshade May Stoke Warming
> Arctic Melt: Loss of reflectivity in the Arctic doubles estimate of climate models

Radiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008
London, January 16 2011 - The extent of snow cover and sea ice in the Northern Hemispherehas declined since 1979, coincident with hemispheric warming and indicative of a positive feedback of surface reflectivity on climate.
This albedo feedback of snow on land has been quantified from observations at seasonal timescales and century-scale feedback has been assessed using climate models. However, the total impact of the cryosphere on radiative forcing and albedo feedback has yet to be determined from measurements.
Here we assess the influence of the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere on Earth’s radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere—termed cryosphere radiative forcing—by synthesizing a variety of remote sensing and field measurements.
We estimate mean Northern Hemisphere forcing at -4.6 to -2.2 W m-2, with a peak in May of -9.0±2.7 W m-2. We find that cyrospheric cooling declined by 0.45 W m-2 from 1979 to 2008, with nearly equal contributions from changes in land snow cover and sea ice.
On the basis of these observations, we conclude that the albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere falls between 0.3 and 1.1 W m-2 K-1, substantially larger than comparable estimates obtained from 18 climate models.
> www.nature.com: adiative forcing and albedo feedback from the Northern Hemisphere cryosphere between 1979 and 2008

BP targets one of the world's last unspoilt wildernesses after deal

London, January 16 2011 - Environmentalists are angry at the energy giant's plans to drill for oil in a remote region of the Arctic The Arctic is to become the "new environmental battleground", campaigners warned yesterday after BP announced plans to drill in one of the last great unspoilt wildernesses on earth.
> www.independent.co.uk: BP targets one of the world's last unspoilt wildernesses after deal
> www.independent.co.uk: BP aims to calm shareholders' fears over Russian deal
> www.independent.co.uk / Sara Wheeler: Why is Russia's Arctic closed to visitors? Who is hiding what?

Mark Kennedy: 15 other undercover police infiltrated green movement
London, January 16 2011 - An undercover policeman who spent seven years living as an environmental activist has claimed that at least 15 other agents had infiltrated the movement and disclosed that sexual entanglements with them were commonplace.
> www.telegraph.co.uk: 15 other undercover police infiltrated green movement

The population explosion

London, January 14 2011 - This year, there will be 7 billion people on Earth. But how will the planet will cope with the expanding population – and is there anything we can, or should, do to stop it?
> www.guardian.co.uk: The population explosion

Global temperature records in close agreement, despite subtle differences

January 14, 2011 - Groups of scientists from several major institutions – NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), the Japanese Meteorological Agency and the Met Office Hadley Centre in the United Kingdom – tally data collected by temperature monitoring stations spread around the world and make an announcement about whether the previous year was a comparatively warm or cool year.
> www.nasa.gov: Global temperature records in close agreement, despite subtle differences (Jan 13)

Massive Outbreak of Jellyfish Could Spell Trouble for Fisheries

January 13, 2011 - The world’s oceans have been experiencing enormous blooms of jellyfish, apparently caused by overfishing, declining water quality, and rising sea temperatures. Now, scientists are trying to determine if these outbreaks could represent a “new normal” in which jellyfish increasingly supplant fish.
> e360.yale.edu: Massive Outbreak of Jellyfish Could Spell Trouble for Fisheries

Fall of Rome Recorded in Trees

January 13, 2011 - When empires rise and fall and plagues sweep over the land, people have traditionally cursed the stars. But perhaps they should blame the weather. A new analysis of European tree-ring samples suggests that mild summers may have been the key to the rise of the Roman Empire—and that prolonged droughts, cold snaps, and other climate changes might have played a part in historical upheavals, from the barbarian invasions that brought about Rome's collapse to the Black Death that wiped out much of medieval Europe.
"Looking back on 2500 years, there are examples where climate change impacted human history," says the study's lead author, Ulf Büntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape in Zurich. "This kind of information is not only relevant for ancient agrarian societies, it might also impact modern societies."
> news.sciencemag.org: Fall of Rome Recorded in Trees (Jan 13)

Earth's Hot Past: Prologue to Future Climate?

January 13, 2011 - The magnitude of climate change during Earth's deep past suggests that future temperatures may eventually rise far more than projected if society continues its pace of emitting greenhouse gases, a new analysis concludes.
> www.nsf.gov: Earth's Hot Past: Prologue to Future Climate?

NOAA: 2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record

January 12, 2011 - According to NOAA scientists, 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record, beginning in 1880. This was the 34th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average. For the contiguous United States alone, the 2010 average annual temperature was above normal, resulting in the 23rd warmest year on record.

Global Highlights

* For 2010, the combined global land and ocean surface temperature tied with 2005 as the warmest such period on record, at 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). 1998 is the third warmest year-to-date on record, at 0.60°C (1.08°F) above the 20th century average.

* The 2010 Northern Hemisphere combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the warmest year on record, at 0.73°C (1.31°F) above the 20th century average. The 2010 Southern Hemisphere combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the sixth warmest year on record, at 0.51°C (0.92°F) above the 20th century average.

* The global land surface temperature for 2010 tied with 2005 as the second warmest on record, at 0.96°C (1.73°F) above the 20th century average. The warmest such period on record occurred in 2007, at 0.99°C (1.78°F) above the 20th century average.

* The global ocean surface temperature for 2010 tied with 2005 as the third warmest on record, at 0.49°C (0.88°F) above the 20th century average.

* In 2010 there was a dramatic shift in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which influences temperature and precipitation patterns around the world. A moderate-to-strong El Niño at the beginning of the year transitioned to La Niña conditions by July. At the end of November, La Niña was moderate-to-strong.

References:
> www.noaanews.noaa.gov: 2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record
> www.nasa.gov: NASA Research Finds 2010 Tied for Warmest Year on Record0
> www.ncdc.noaa.gov: State of the Climate Global Analysis Annual 2010
> 2010 Global Significant Weather and Climate Events

CO2 and the Hangover that Won't Quit

January 10, 2011 - If the excesses of the holidays get you down, you're not going to like the modeling results that Canadian climate researchers are reporting this week in Nature Geoscience. It looks like the carbon dioxide cocktail we are brewing in the atmosphere will leave us with a hangover that won't quit.
Following a hypothesized complete cessation of carbon dioxide emissions, global climate models simulate approximately constant global mean temperatures for centuries.
Long-term simulations with the Canadian Earth System Model suggest that, on these timescales, regional changes in temperature and precipitation are nevertheless significant, and that Southern Ocean warming at intermediate depths could affect the stability of Antarctic ice.
> news.discovery.com: CO2 and the Hangover that Won't Quit
> news.discovery.com: Climate Change to Continue to Year 3000
> www.physorg.com: Climate change to continue to year 3000 in best case scenarios: research
> www.nature.com: Ongoing climate change following a complete cessation of carbon dioxide emissions (18 $)

La Nina-caused woes down under

January 10, 2011 - The current La Niña in the Pacific Ocean, one of the strongest in the past 50 years, continues to exert a powerful influence on weather around the world, affecting rainfall and temperatures in varying ways in different locations.
> www.physorg.com: La Nina-caused woes down under

NASA Temperature Maps: Notice Anything Different?

NASA has just published two world maps showing temperature anomalies in the decades starting in 1970 and 2000. Looking at those maps, it's pretty obvious that the planet is warming, especially closer to the poles.
> www.treehugger.com: Notice anything different?
> data.giss.nasa.gov: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP)

Exclusive: Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution
New York, January 7 2011 - This week, ThinkProgress conducted an impromptu interview with David Koch — one of the richest men in America, co-owner of the conglomerate Koch Industries, and a top financier of right-wing front groups — after we found him leaving the swearing-in ceremony for Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). In the first part of the interview, Koch said that he “admire[s]” the Tea Party movement, and that “the rank and file are just normal people like us.” As ThinkProgress has detailed, Koch operatives orchestrated the first anti-Obama Tea Party protests, channeled Tea Party groups into increasing the Koch’s personal wealth, and organized Tea Parties for Republican campaigns and lobbying drives.
> thinkprogress.org: Polluter Billionaire David Koch Says Tea Party ‘Rank And File Are Just Normal People Like Us’ (Part 1)
> thinkprogress.org: Tea Party Billionaire David Koch Denies Climate Change, Shrugs Off His Carbon Pollution (Part 2)

"Bulge" in Atmospheric Pressure Responsible for Cold Winter Amid Global Warming
New York, January 5 2011 - The cold in places like Florida actually could be a sign of warming, rather than an argument against the phenomenon Icicle-covered oranges in Florida. The United Kingdom swamped with its coldest December in more than a century. Travelers stranded in airports surrounded by snowy fortresses.
These have been some of the dominant images this winter, and now one forecaster says it's going to get colder. Yesterday, an AccuWeather meteorologist predicted that January could be the chilliest for the nation as a whole since the 1980s.
> www.scientificamerican.com: "Bulge" in Atmospheric Pressure Responsible for Cold Winter Amid Global Warming

India's hidden climate change catastrophe

London / New Delhi, January 2, 2011 - Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves.
> www.independent.co.uk: India's hidden climate change catastrophe
> www.oxfam.org.uk: Climate Change Costs Lives

Archive 2010

More Archive