A new paper published in The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society fills in the gaps in the UK Met Office HadCRUT4 surface temperature data set, and finds that the global surface warming since 1997 has happened more than twice as fast as the HadCRUT4 estimate. This short video abstract summarizes the study's approach and results.
Latest climate and biosphere modelling suggests that the length of time carbon remains in vegetation during the global carbon cycle -- known as 'residence time' -- is the key "uncertainty" in predicting how Earth's terrestrial plant life -- and consequently almost all life -- will respond to higher CO2 levels and global warming, say researchers.[1] Carbon will spend increasingly less time in vegetation as the negative impacts of climate change take their toll through factors such as increased drought levels -- with carbon rapidly rele
One of the key indicators and consequences of global warming is ice loss at the Earth’s poles. As the planet warms, on average and over time, more ice melts every summer. It refreezes in the winter, but again, as temperatures rise, in general we’ll see less ice at any given time as compared to the year before. The situation for the two poles is different. In the north, the Arctic ice floats on the ocean, and in the south, the Antarctic ice is over land and sea. This means that they ways they melt — how quickly, how much, even where specifically in those regions — are different.
Sea ice is thinner and more fragile, fires scorching northern forests and tundra are sending plumes of soot into the atmosphere, and wild weather might persist in the Arctic and beyond, according to the seventh annual Arctic Report Card, presented Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The report, which updates interlinking factors rapidly changing the Arctic environment, was presented at the American Geophysical Unions fall meeting in San Francisco.
Today, in 2013, we face an unavoidably radical future. We either continue with rising emissions and reap the radical repercussions of severe climate change, or we acknowledge that we have a choice and pursue radical emission reductions: No longer is there a non-radical option. Moreover, low-carbon supply technologies cannot deliver the necessary rate of emission reductions -- they need to be complemented with rapid, deep and early reductions in energy consumption -- the rationale for this conference.
Two circular bands of winds called the westerlies are being changed by human-caused global warming. The consequences from these changes could become quite large and come on suddenly - quite the surprise for anyone who still thinks climate change is a future "slow" problem. In the words of Paul Mayewski, director of the University of Maine's Climate Change Institute, these and associated climate changes are “just not part of a natural cycle.” From his perspective, an abrupt climate change has also just taken place - in the Arctic.
A new paper explores how policy makers can work with the uncomfortable knowledge that the prospects for holding average global warming to below two degrees Celsius are rapidly decreasing. They identify for the first time key uncertainties, risks and opportunities associated with alternatives to the two degree target of international climate policy, published in the peer-reviewed journal Climate Policy.
It’s been a hot week for global warming. NASA released global temperature data showing that this September tied with 2005 for the warmest September on record. That’s doubly impressive since 2005 was warmed by an El Niño and accompanying warm Pacific ocean temperatures, whereas 2013 has had cooler Pacific temperatures all year. Greenhouse gases keep warming the planet to unprecedented levels with unprecedented speed. That’s the conclusion of two new studies out this week.
Plenty of studies have shown that the Arctic is warming and that the ice caps are melting, but how does it compare to the past, and how serious is it?
New research shows that average summer temperatures in the Canadian Arctic over the last century are the highest in the last 44,000 years, and perhaps the highest in 120,000 years...more
The aims of international climate negotiations and of the global climate action movement are to "prevent" dangerous climate change. But what do we do if global warming is already dangerous? In a concluding section, this report argues that with clear evidence that climate change is already dangerous, we are in an emergency and face "...an unavoidably radical future".
