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More Frequent Heat Waves by 2020 ‘Almost Certain’
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on August 18th, 2013
Climate News Network: Stand by for extreme weather. Prepare for heat waves on a scale that was once unprecedented. For once, there are no "ifs' in the forecast, no caveats about modeling business-as-usual-scenarios rather than dramatic reductions of emissions for near-term warming
Even if governments abandon fossil fuels everywhere, immediately, and invest only in green energy, there will be new record temperatures. The greenhouse gas emissions of the last few decades now mean that regions of the planet subjected to...
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Expect More Crippling Heatwaves By 2020
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on August 15th, 2013
Climate News Network: Stand by for extreme weather. Prepare for heat waves on a scale that was once unprecedented. For once, there is no “if” in the forecast. Even if governments abandon fossil fuels everywhere, immediately and invest only in green energy, there will be new record temperatures.
European climate scientists say the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere mean it is inevitable that far more parts of the world will experience more frequent and severe heat waves in the next 30 years.
The greenhouse...
Polar ice loss cause still unclear
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on July 15th, 2013
Climate News Network: Here is a non-conclusion: after nine years of close observation, researchers still cannot be sure whether the planet is losing its ice caps at an accelerating rate.
That is because the run of data from one satellite is still not long enough to answer the big question: are Greenland and Antarctica melting because of global warming, or just blowing hot before blowing cold again in some long-term natural cycle?
The question is a serious one. If the loss of ice that seems to be happening now is...
Coral Reefs Face Point of No Return
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on July 12th, 2013
Climate News Network: Without deep cuts in carbon dioxide emissions, the planet’s coral reefs could be in serious trouble. In a world in which humans continue to burn fossil fuels unchecked, ocean conditions will become ultimately inhospitable, according to U.S. scientists.
Katharine Ricke and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution in Washington and colleagues make their sombre prediction in Environmental Research Letters. Their argument on the face of it seems inconsistent with other recent research on reef response...
Better air quality linked to worse hurricanes
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 24th, 2013
Climate News Network: Scientists from Britain's Meteorological Office have fingered a new suspect in their attempt to solve the mystery of tropical storms. It is, unexpectedly, air quality.
If North Atlantic hurricanes are more destructive or more frequent, it may be linked to lower levels of atmospheric pollution. Conversely, sulphate aerosols and other particles from factory chimneys, vehicle exhausts, domestic fires, power stations and other human economic advances may have played a role in keeping tropical storms...
California’s snow loss to hit winter sports, water supply
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 23rd, 2013
Climate News Network: By mid-century, the snow-capped mountains of Southern California will be a lot less snowy, according to a new study from the University of California Los Angeles.
The mountains beyond Pasadena, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Venice Beach and other iconic addresses will have 30 to 40 percent less snow on top and none at all at lower elevations. And by 2100, snowfall could be reduced to about a third of its level in 2000.
By mid-century, the snow-capped peaks of Southern California with have 30-40...
Greenland’s Great Melt Is Pinned On Climate Change
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 19th, 2013
Climate News Network: First: the story so far. For a few days in July 2012, almost 97% of the surface of Greenland began suddenly to thaw. This was a melt on an unprecedented scale. Greenland carries a burden of three million cubic kilometres of ice and even in the summer, most of it stays frozen, partly because of the island’s high latitude and partly because ice reflects sunlight, and tends normally to serve as its own insulator. The event was so unusual, and so unexpected, and on such a scale that nobody seriously...
Warming bad for life in freshwater lakes and rivers
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on June 17th, 2013
Climate News Network: Austria's alpine lakes are warming, and that's bad news for the region's fish and economy, according to new research in the journal Hydrobiologia. The Alpine valleys are warming: From 1980 to 1999 the region warmed three times the global average. Martin Dokulil of the Institute for Limnology at the University of Innsbruck studied data from nine lakes larger than 10 square kilometers, or about 2,500 acres. The largest, Bodensee or Lake Constance, touches Austria's border with Germany and Switzerland;...
Hurricane Sandy’s Immense Energy Shook the U.S
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on May 4th, 2013
Climate News Network: Sandy, the superstorm that all but submerged New York, was powerful enough to set U.S. earthquake detectors quivering long before it hit the American coastline.
It stirred up Atlantic Ocean waves that slammed into each other, started to shake the sea floor and then shook the Midwestern states so vigorously that the storm's progress could be tracked by seismometer.
The windstorm-induced tremors were very tiny, and not unusual -- and say as much about the sensitivity of modern seismometers as...
Fast-Moving Climate Zones Are Speeding Extinction
Posted by Climate News Network: Tim Radford on April 30th, 2013
Climate News Network: As global temperatures rise, climate zones will shift at greater speed, according to new research in Nature Climate Change.
If greenhouse gas emissions carry on increasing, then about 20 percent of the land area of the planet will undergo change -- and the creatures that have made their homes in what were once stable ecosystems will have to adapt swiftly, or face grim consequences.
Heading for extinction? Rising temperatures are heightening the risk say researchers.
"The warmer the climate...