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Industry Money Influences Keystone Vote, Group Claims
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on March 25th, 2013
Summit Voice: It`s probably not surprising that the U.S. Senate passed an amendment (62-37) in support of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. There`s money -- Big Money -- at stake, and new research from Oil Change International details who got what. The 10 senators who cosponsored the Hoeven Amendment have on average received $807, 517 from the fossil fuel industry. That works out to 254 percent more than the average senator not sponsoring the amendment, and a total haul of more than $8 million dollars, based...
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Midwest to feel the heat of global warming
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on January 19th, 2013
Summit Voice: The Midwest could be among the regions hit hardest by climate change, according to a trio of University of Michigan researchers who authored sections of the recent national climate assessment.
The region is likely to face frequent and more intense heat waves, water quality degradation and public health threats, with increasing risks to Great Lakes ecosystems.
"Climate change impacts in the Midwest are expected to be as diverse as the landscape itself. Impacts are already being felt in the forests,...
Global warming research eyes ‘runaway’ ice melt
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on December 31st, 2012
Summit Voice: Most climate models are probably underestimating the rate of sea level rise expected during the next few decades, according to some of the latest research that tries to quantify how much ice may melt off the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets.
A Dec. 26 update by James Hansen and Makiko Sato warns that melting of those ice sheets could increase sea level rise exponentially higher than most existing forecasts, potentially inundating coastal cities around the world with several feet of water by...
Report says permafrost carbon emissions must be included in climate models, planning
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on November 27th, 2012
Summit Voice: With temperatures on polar regions rising twice as fast as the global average, there`s a good chance that between 30 to 85 percent of near-surface permafrost could melt, releasing billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere by the end of the century.
But most existing climate models don`t accurately account for the impact of permafrost carbon dioxide and methane emissions, according to a new report from the United Nations Environment Program. The report recommends that the IPCC compile a special...
Bhutan’s glaciers at risk
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on November 17th, 2012
Summit Voice: After significant warming during half century, about 10 percent of Bhutan`s glaciers are likely to disappear within the next few decades -- even if regional and global temperatures were to stabilize at current levels.
"These particular glaciers have seen so much warming in the past few decades that they`re currently playing lots of catch up,” Brigham Young University geology professor Summer Rupper said after studying climate and glaciers in the Himalaya.
Rupper`s most conservative findings...
Global warming likely to be at high end of forecast range
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on November 9th, 2012
Summit Voice: By now, everybody knows the Earth is steadily getting warmer. The big unanswered question is just how much more temperatures will rise, and a new analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research suggests the increases will be at the high end of predicted spectrum.
The key to the findings were accurate assessments of moisture processes in the atmosphere over the subtropics, according to NCAR scientists John Fasullo and Kevin Trenberth.
The seasonal drying in the subtropics...
Pinpoint global warming impacts on South Pacific rainfall
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on October 29th, 2012
Summit Voice: While some weather observations and climate models suggest specific global warming impacts to southern hemisphere weather patterns, a new study by the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa suggests rainfall will be affected by two competing factors.
In the South Pacific, these two effects -- an increase due to overall warming and a decrease due to changes in atmospheric water transport -- may cancel each other out, resulting in highly uncertain rainfall projections....
Climate: Topography affects rate of ice sheet retreat
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on October 17th, 2012
Summit Voice: Even as global warming shrinks many of the world`s major ice sheets, new research suggest that the underlying topography can significantly influence how fast they retreat, and in some cases even halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming.
The researchers reached their conclusions after studying the landscape of the seafloor in Marguerite Bay, in the Antarctic Peninsula. They saw that, during a rapid phase of recession 13,000 years ago, retreat paused many times.
Computer models...
Climate change: scientists ponder cloud brightening
Posted by Summit Voice: None Given on August 21st, 2012
Summit Voice: With international efforts to limit heat-trapping greenhouse gases faltering, some scientists say it`s worth at least exploring the concept of creating clouds that might reflect sunlight to counter global warming.
Geoengineering has always had a few proponents, as there are always some people who think that we can engineer our way out of any problem. But many of the ideas floated as possible solutions to global warming are just vague theories at best, with little evidence that they could work....