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Archive for January 25th, 2016
Record hot 2015 gave glimpse at future of global warming
Posted by Guardian: Dana Nuccitelli on January 25th, 2016
Guardian: 2015 smashed the record for hottest year by about 0.14°C. To put that into perspective, the previous two hottest years (2014 and 2010) only broke the prior records by 0.002°C, according to Berkeley Earth data. The only time the temperature record was shattered by such a large margin was in the monster El Niño year of 1998.
While the current El Niño event is also becoming monstrously strong, it’s only now reaching its peak intensity, and there’s an approximately 4-month lag before changes in El...
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Record hot years almost certainly caused by man-made warming
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2016
Reuters: A record-breaking string of hot years since 2000 is almost certainly a sign of man-made global warming, with vanishingly small chances that it was caused by random, natural swings, a study showed on Monday.
Last year was the hottest since records began in the 19th century in a trend that almost all scientists blame on greenhouse gases from burning of fossil fuels, stoking heat waves, droughts, downpours and rising sea levels.
"Recent observed runs of record temperatures are extremely unlikely...
21st century warm streak ‘almost certainly’ human caused
Posted by Climate Home: Megan Darby on January 25th, 2016
Climate Home: The chances of natural variability causing the record warm streak this century are vanishingly small.
Greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels are "almost certainly" behind the surge in global temperatures, according to a study published in Nature.
Without human activities, scientists calculate the odds are between 1 in 5000 and 1 in 170000 of the pattern seen between 2000 and 2014: thirteen of the 15 warmest years on record.
"2015 is again the warmest year on record, and this can hardly...
Record hot years near impossible without manmade climate change – study
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 25th, 2016
Guardian: The world’s run of record-breaking hottest years is extremely unlikely to have happened without the global warming caused by human activities, according to new calculations.
Thirteen of the 15 hottest years in the 150-year-long record occurred between 2000-14 and the researchers found there is a just a 0.01% chance that this happened due to natural variations in the planet’s climate.
2015 was revealed to have smashed all earlier records on Wednesday, after the new study had been completed,...
Indonesia: How tweeting about floods became a civic duty in Jakarta
Posted by Guardian: Tomas Holderness and Etienne Turpin on January 25th, 2016
Guardian: Five major floods hit Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, in 2015, sparking more than 100,000 flood-related Twitter conversations in the city.
Jakarta, the world’s second largest city, is regularly devastated by flooding during the annual monsoon. The global proliferation of smartphones has meant citizens increasingly take to social media networks to share information during emergency events like these.
That’s why PetaJakarta.org (Map Jakarta) was born: it’s an online platform that transforms Twitter...
‘El Nino will fade, but climate change will be with us for decades’
Posted by Climate Home: Megan Darby on January 25th, 2016
Climate Home: The UN weather agency has confirmed 2015 global temperatures were 1C higher than the pre-industrial average.
That brought weather extremes including heatwaves, flooding and severe drought, in a sign of things to come as growing greenhouse gas emissions trap energy in the Earth`s systems.
Fifteen of the 16 warmest years on record occurred this century, said the World Meteorological Organization, showing a clear upward trend.
"An exceptionally strong El Nino and global warming caused by greenhouse...
This barren desert was once Bolivia’s second-largest lake
Posted by Mashable: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Mashable: Overturned fishing skiffs lie abandoned on the shores of what was once Bolivia's second-largest lake. Beetles dine on bird carcasses and gulls fight for scraps under a glaring sun in what marshes remain. Lake Poopó was officially declared evaporated last month. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have lost their livelihoods and left the area. High on Bolivia's semi-arid Andean plains at 3,700 meters (more than 12,000 feet) and long subject to climatic whims, the shallow saline lake has essentially...
Was Hottest Year on Record by Far
Posted by Solo: Melchiorre Ramaglia on January 25th, 2016
Solo: 2015 was Earth's hottest year on record, according to new data released Wednesday by NOAA and NASA. Globally averaged temperatures in 2015 shattered the 2014 record by 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius). And it beat the previous 2014 record by roughly one quarter of a degree, the second-largest year-over-year margin.
2015 was the fourth time that a global temperature record had been set in the 21st century.
Once the El Niño cycle began to affect temperatures after mid-year, "October, November,...
Planet shatters warming records, 2015 hottest `by far`
Posted by Senegal ACTU: None Given on January 25th, 2016
Senegal ACTU: NASA, which measures temperature using satellites rather than ground stations and ocean buoys like NOAA, said 2015 was 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than 2014 and 1.6 degrees above the 20th-century average.
It was the largest year-on-year increase in record-breaking global temperatures, he said.
The report, which was confirmed by a separate analysis from NASA scientists, marks the fourth time a global temperature record has been set this century. However, a year ago was the first time the...