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Heat records smashed again as big El Niño rides on global warming
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on November 18th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Worldwide temperatures last month soared to new heights for October, boosted by the second-strongest El Nino on record, adding to the likelihood that 2015 will also smash annual heat records. The amount of heat required to warm up just the top two metres of the El Nino hot spot in the Pacific has been calculated at 100 quadrillion kilojoules - or about the total annual energy use in the US. Average surface temperatures worldwide were 0.53 degrees above the 1981-2010 average and the warmest since...
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Abrupt changes in food chains predicted as Southern Ocean acidifies fast
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on November 3rd, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: The Southern Ocean is acidifying at such a rate because of rising carbon dioxide emissions that large regions may be inhospitable for key organisms in the food chain to survive as soon as 2030, new US research has found.
Tiny pteropods, snail-like creatures that play an important role in the food web, will lose their ability to form shells as oceans absorb more of the CO2 from the atmosphere, a process already observed over short periods in areas close to the Antarctic coast.
Ocean acidification...
Paris 2015: Carbon promises lock in 2.7 degrees warming, UN says
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on October 31st, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: The world remains on course to exceed dangerous temperature increases even if nations carry out pledges they make at next month's global climate summit in Paris, the United Nations says.
An assessment by the UN of 146 national goals and those of the European Union covering about 86 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions found they would cut average per capita pollution by as much as 8 per cent by 2025 and 9 per cent by 2030 compared with the current trajectory.
So-called Intended Nationally Determined...
Climate change forecasts warmer & drier Australia
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on June 22nd, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: How will climate change affect where I live?
That's the subject of intense research around the world, as scientists try to predict how increasing levels of greenhouse gases – and the additional heat they trap from the sun – will alter the climate of different regions.
For most regions of Australia, the climate will become warmer and drier, according to research by the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO. For most centres, that's akin to shifting northwards, or in Canberra's case, to a lower...
Deep carbon emission cuts possible and inevitable, reports find
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on April 21st, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Futures of the power sector and carbon reductions are closely tied.
Australia's abundance of renewable energy resources leaves it well-placed to exit fossil fuels altogether by 2050 at a manageable cost of the economy, according to an Australian National University report.
The report, synthesising research by the CSIRO, ClimateWorks and other sources, argues that the country can tap solar, wind and other renewable energy sources in the order of 500 times the current power generation capacity....
Thirty years of consecutive warmth: The heat really is on
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on March 17th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Back in February 1985, The Heat Is On by US rock legend Glenn Frey was near the top of the music charts and unwittingly becoming something of an anthem for the global climate ever since.
Last month capped 30 years in which average monthly temperatures worldwide have been warmer than the average for the 20th century. That's 360 consecutive months.
And that warming trend, which scientists say is mostly the result of a build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, remains strong - although there...
Just years to go for unburnable coal reserves, new study finds
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on January 8th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: The viability of mining Australia's massive fossil fuel reserves has been called into question by new research that estimates the limits of carbon emissions possible if dangerous climate change is to be avoided.
In a study published in the journal Nature, University College London researchers say that 82 per cent of the world's coal, half its gas reserves and a third of its oil must remain in the ground if global temperature increases are to be kept within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels. ...
Australia’s third hottest year on record
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on January 6th, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald: Australia has capped two years of extraordinary warmth with 2014 declared the third hottest on record just 12 months after 2013 smashed annual highs, the Bureau of Meteorology said. No year since 1985 has observed a below-average global mean temperature and all of the 10 warmest years have occurred between 1998 and the present. Mean temperatures across the country in 2014 came in 0.91 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, behind only 2013 and 2005. Melbourne posted its equal warmest year on record...
Rich nations have moral duty to help island nations as climate change shifts weather patterns
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on August 31st, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: Small island nations, particularly those in the Pacific, are already experiencing "extreme effects" from global warming, and rich nations including Australia have a "moral responsibility" to help them cope with future unavoidable threats, a senior World Bank executive said.
Atoll nations including Kiribati, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are seeing shifting rainfall patterns, rising sea-levels and ocean acidification that are forcing islanders to move, said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank's special...
Climate change may disrupt global food system in a decade
Posted by Sydney Morning Herald: Peter Hannam on August 27th, 2014
Sydney Morning Herald: The world is headed "down a dangerous path" with disruption of the food system possible within a decade as climate change undermines nations' ability to feed themselves, according to a senior World Bank official.
Rising urban populations are contributing to expanded demand for meat, adding to nutrition shortages for the world's poor. Increased greenhouse gas emissions from livestock as well as land clearing will make farming more marginal in many regions, especially in developing nations, said...