The “Little Ice Age” and the “Medieval Climate Anonmaly” seem to be linked to the tropical pacific which appears to run in a counter trend (i.e. tropical pacific warm|cold, extratropical northern hemisphere cold|warm) | Global temperatures are known to have varied over the past 1500 years, but the spatial patterns have remained poorly defined. We used a global climate proxy network to reconstruct surface temperature patterns over this interval. The Medieval period is found to display warmth that matches or exceeds that of the past decade in some regions, but which falls well below recent levels globally. This period is marked by a tendency for La Niña–like conditions in the tropical Pacific. The coldest temperatures of the Little Ice Age are observed over the interval 1400 to 1700 C.E., with greatest cooling over the extratropical Northern Hemisphere continents. The patterns of temperature change imply dynamical responses of climate to natural radiative forcing changes involving El Niño and the North Atlantic Oscillation–Arctic Oscillation.Read more at www.sciencemag.org |
Microchips sans silicon - using new materials as silicon reaches its limit; open access and global participation in science - big impact in the developing world, nearly none in the developed world; the role of water vapor feedback in global warming; and more.
Water Vapor Feedback
“The most obvious feedback is the water vapor feedback – it’s intuitively obvious that if you heat the planet you get more water vapor, and that’s going to really greatly amplify the warmth CO2.” And, then Dick Lindzen, who’s a very well known atmospheric scientists at MIT, wrote a paper where he kind of speculated that it may not be as strong as people think. And the 1992, they came out with a report in 1992 which said, “Water feedback is pretty strong, but there may be some issue with upper tropospheric water. [... today t]here’s really no way you can argue that the water feedback’s not really strong and really powerful. And that fact essentially guarantees that we’re going to get big warming if we add a lot of CO2 to the atmosphere unless there happens to be a big negative feedback that compensates for it. [that we do not know of.] But, the evidence for that’s weak, and I think there’s a lot of reason to believe that it doesn’t exist.
More:
Not all scientists were fooled by Mr. Gore’s ruse, but many remained silent nonetheless. The Associated Press quotes an anonymous marine biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who says she knew all along that “this climate change stuff was completely bogus.”
“But I played along,” she said. “The opportunities for securing global-warming-related grant money were just too great for me to resist.”
“Sweet, sweet grant money,” she added.
In an unprecedented move Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee rescinded the Peace Prize it awarded in 2007 to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, amid overwhelming evidence that global warming is an elaborate hoax cooked up by Mr. Gore. |
For his part, Al Gore has owned up to duping the scientific community. In a blog post on his website, the ex-Nobel Laureate explains the genesis of his scheme, “now that the jig is up.” |
As long as I can remember, my only goal in life has been to destroy free-market capitalism and replace it with global totalitarian socialism. But it seemed that traditional methods, such as guerrilla warfare, were proving unsuccessful. Then, one day in 1988, as I was strolling through the halls of my giant mansion, it hit me: carbon dioxide. Read more at features.csmonitor.com |
The signers will include the U.S., China and India. Top leaders from the World’s 19 richest countries and the EU meet this week in London to discuss the world’s economic situation. According to Reuters, a draft of a statement from the meeting would confirm the G20 leaders’ willingness to sign a new climate pact in December and to support low carbon growth. |
| “There is real momentum … politics are lining up,” said Steve Howard, CEO of the Climate Group, an international environmental and business group. “I have no doubt that at Copenhagen or shortly after, we have a sort of broad, global framework. |
| “We will work together to explore additional measures to promote low carbon growth and build sustainable economies. We reaffirm our commitment to … reach an agreement at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in December.”Read more at en.cop15.dk |
Could it be? Inhofe’s first baby step to conceding to the findings of 97% of climate scientists? One might view it that way.
An interesting article on the potential impact of land-use and irrigation on the Indian Summer Monsoon. | We examined the effects of land cover change over the Indian subcontinent during pre-monsoon season (March, April, and May - MAM) on early Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall using observed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and July precipitation for the period of 1982-2003. |
| July rainfall significantly decreased in central and southern India, and the decrease is statistically related to the increase in the preceding MAM NDVI anomalies. |
Too bad for free markets that ignoring the climate change problem rather than using markets as a tool has been the norm. Now that the pendulem, held back too long by vested interests, has begun to swing toward more state intervention, useful market tools may well be ignored. I hope not. One this is clear - denial and conspiracy theories should no longer be the foundation of our policies.
Never again. Politicians have failed to take on board the severe consequences of failing to cut world carbon emissions, according to Nicholas Stern, the economist commissioned by Gordon Brown to analyse the impact of climate change. |
His stark warning about the potentially “devastating” consequences of global warming came as scientists issued a desperate plea last night for world leaders to curb greenhouse gas emissions or face an ecological and social disaster. |
| In a significant break from the scientific tradition not to comment directly on policy, the experts insisted politicians must stand up to “vested interests that increase emissions” and “build on a growing public desire for governments to act”. |
| “Do the politicians understand just how difficult it could be? Just how devastating four, five, six degrees centigrade would be? I think not yet. Looking back, the Stern review underestimated the risks and underestimated the damage from inaction.”Read more at www.guardian.co.uk |
Once again the IPCC has been shown to be wrong. And once again they are ‘wrong’ on the side of being too conservative about the impact of climate change. | The global sea level looks set to rise far higher than forecast because of changes in the polar ice-sheets, a team of researchers has suggested. |
Professor Konrad Steffen from the University of Colorado, speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, highlighted new studies into ice loss in Greenland, showing it has accelerated over the last decade.
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Professor Steffen, who has studied the Arctic ice for the past 35 years, told me: “I would predict sea level rise by 2100 in the order of one metre; it could be 1.2m or 0.9m.
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“But it is one metre or more seeing the current change, which is up to three times more than the average predicted by the IPCC.”
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“It is a major change and it actually calls for action.”
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“As a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to sea level rise than anticipated,” he observed.
Read more at news.bbc.co.uk |
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Science Podcast: New Materials for Microchips; Open-Access Science; Water Vapor Feedback [Listen to MP3] 
