Grist | Topics | 53 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 53
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Kicking up a storm Nature: Hurricanes are getting fiercer	Joseph Romm	05 Sep 2008	Gristmill
Nature has published a major analysis that supports my recent two-parter. As Nature explains: ... scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide.The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research published in Nature this week. And the upward trend, thought to be driven by rising ocean tem ...
Topics: climate, climate science, climate change impacts, severe weather, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

I'll Huff and I'll Puff ... Warming seas make strong storms stronger, says new study		03 Sep 2008	News
Posted at 1:39 PM on 03 Sep 2008 As Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine become household names, more research has been added to the ongoing debate over the impact of climate change on hurricanes. A new study published in Nature indicates that warming seas have not increased the intensity of your everyday hurricane, but have made the mightiest storms even mightier. In essence, "if the seas continue to warm, w ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, news, severe weather (all these topics)

Typhoon Marys and cyclone Janes Why future Katrinas and Gustavs will be much worse, part 2	Joseph Romm	03 Sep 2008	Gristmill
A lot of knee-jerk deniers (please don't write in -- I know that is redundant) misread 'part 1,' as I knew they would. I was not wading into the issue of whether global warming has already made intense tropical storms more common. That remains a great subject of debate, mostly because of the inadequacy of historical hurricane records, before the satellite era, and especially before WWII. That said, the North Atlantic seems special because much of the hurricane-formin ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

Stormy weather Should environmentalists jump on climate disasters?	Glenn Hurowitz	03 Sep 2008	Gristmill
There's a heated debate going on about whether environmentalists should jump on breaking climate disasters like Gustav and frame them in terms of global warming and other environmental issues. Open Left's Matt Stoller and Center for American Progress's Joseph Romm say yes, and 'anonymous environmental leader' says no (all are must-reads). In my recent book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party, I wrote about some research that might shed light on this question (th ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, politics, severe weather (all these topics)

Hurri-cane we stop these storms? Why global warming means killer storms worse than Katrina and Gustav, part 1	Joseph Romm	03 Sep 2008	Gristmill
Hurricanes can get much, much bigger and stronger than we have so far seen in the Atlantic. The most intense Pacific storm on record was Super Typhoon Tip in 1979, which reached maximum sustained winds of 190 mph near the center. On its wide rim, gale-force winds (39 mph) extended over a diameter of an astonishing 1,350 miles. It would have covered nearly half the continental United States. 'More than half the total hurricane damage in the U.S. (normalized for infla ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans, severe weather (all these topics)

The storm of the century (so far) Will Gustav be the next Katrina?	Joseph Romm	29 Aug 2008	Gristmill
On August 23, 2005, a tropical depression formed 175 miles southeast of Nassau. By the next day, it had grown into tropical storm Katrina and was intensifying rapidly. Early in the evening on August 25, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near North Miami Beach. Even though it was only a Category 1 storm, with sustained wind speeds of about 80 miles-per-hour, it caused significant damage and flooding, and took 14 lives. The hurricane's quick nighttime trip across ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, Louisiana, severe weather (all these topics)

On the Brink of Disaster Report identifies areas where natural disasters could hit hardest		22 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 1:51 PM on 22 Aug 2008 Natural disasters made more severe by climate change will hit especially hard in regions with shaky political, economic, and security situations, says a new report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and relief agency CARE International. Vulnerable areas include central Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel; Afghanistan, the Casp ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, news, severe weather, United Nations (all these topics)

At Least Buy Us All Umbrellas Science orgs plead for more funding for severe-weather preparation		21 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 8:30 AM on 21 Aug 2008 More floods, storms, and droughts are a-comin', and the U.S. lacks funding to predict and prepare for 'em, say eight scientific organizations. The groups, including the American Geophysical Union and American Meteorological Society, made a plea Wednesday for Congress and the next U.S. president to double the current budget for climate research and forecasting between ...
Topics: climate, climate change adaptation, climate change impacts, climate science, news, severe weather (all these topics)

Climate forecast: Hot and then even hotter NOAA says July 08 was fifth warmest on record	Joseph Romm	18 Aug 2008	Gristmill
I know we're supposed to be going into a period of cooling, at least according to people who don't believe in the scientific method. For those who do however, NOAA's National Climatic Data Center reports in its 'Climate of 2008 July in Historical Perspective': Based on preliminary data, the globally averaged combined land and sea surface temperature was the fifth warmest on record for July and the ninth warmest for the January-July year-to-date period. It is worth ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

It's raining tigers and wolves Science: Extreme rains supercharged by warming	Joseph Romm	10 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Science has just published, 'Atmospheric Warming and the Amplification of Precipitation Extremes' ($ub. req'd). It concludes: Here, we use satellite observations and model simulations to examine the response of tropical precipitation events to naturally driven changes in surface temperature and atmospheric moisture content.These observations reveal a distinct link between rainfall extremes and temperature, with heavy rain events increasing during warm periods and dec ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

When It Rains, It Pours Climate change will increase extreme rainfall, says study		08 Aug 2008	News
Posted at 12:21 PM on 08 Aug 2008 Photo: Ali Nishan Climate change will likely lead to more powerful rainstorms, says a new study published in Science. Computer models may "substantially" underestimate the number of heavy rainfalls that will occur in a warming world, say scientists who researched naturally occurring weather events during El Ni�o patterns between 1987 and 2004. "A warmer atmosphere co ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, news, scientific research, severe weather (all these topics)

A harbinger of denial The Washington Post's Joel Achenbach doesn't understand basic climate science	Joseph Romm	04 Aug 2008	Gristmill
Repeat after me, Joel: 'Global warming makes the weather more extreme.' If even the Bush administration accepts that basic fact of climate science, shouldn't you? I used to like Achenbach's cutesy science pieces, but his knowledge of climate science is about one or two decades old, as evidenced by his major story in The Washington Post, 'Global Warming Did It! Well, Maybe Not.' It is a typically uninformed journalistic 'backlash' piece whereby a reporter creates a ...
Topics: severe weather, climate, climate science, climate change impacts (all these topics)

Hot, hot heat By century's end we can expect extremely high surface temperatures	Joseph Romm	31 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Sure glacier melt, sea level rise, extreme drought, and species loss get all the media attention -- they are the Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Barack Obama of climate impacts. But what about good old-fashioned sweltering heat? How bad will that be? Two little-noticed studies -- one new, one old -- spell out the grim news. Bottom line: By century's end, extreme temperatures of up to 122�F would threaten most of the central, southern, and western U.S. Even ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

Stormy weather NewScientist cover story looks at link between tornadoes and global warming	Holly Richmond	30 Jul 2008	Gristmill
With a cover that makes Twister look like a heartwarming inspirational flick, the August 2 issue of NewScientist asks if global warming is to blame for the flurry of tornadoes earlier this year. Chris Mooney, author of Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming, reports that 148 tornadoes hit the U.S. in February of this year, twice as many as the previous record-holding February (in 1971), and that May of this year saw a whopping 595 tornad ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, magazines, severe weather (all these topics)

Uganda Drink That? Ugandan coffee endangered by climate change		17 Jul 2008	News
Posted at 3:52 PM on 17 Jul 2008 Uganda's coffee industry could be basically kaput in 30 years, according to a new Oxfam report. Uganda is Africa's second-largest coffee exporter after Ethiopia, but the report direly predicts that if "average global temperatures rise by two degrees or more, then most of Uganda is likely to cease to be suitable for coffee." In the last two decades, inconsistent weather has reduced crop yiel ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change impacts, food, news, severe weather, Uganda (all these topics)

Model behavior Global warming will worsen storms, says U of Michigan scientist	JMG	11 Jul 2008	Gristmill
From ScientificBlogging: Mathematical Model Says Climate Change Will Make Storms WorseA new mathematical model developed by University of Michigan atmospheric and planetary scientist Nilton Renno says that dust devils, water spouts, tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones are all born of the same mechanism and will intensify as climate change warms the Earth's surface.Renno hopes the new equation will allow scientists to more accurately calculate the maximum expected intensity ...
Topics: scientific research, climate change impacts, climate, severe weather (all these topics)

Climate change imperils July Fourth (again) Drought conditions in West and Southwest inspire new fireworks bans	Joseph Romm	03 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Global warming threatens our White Chistmases with winter heatwaves. And our Halloweens with poor pumpkin crops. And our Arbor Days with record wildfires. And our immoral myopia threatens Father's Day. At this rate, the only holiday left will be the gas tax holiday -- for oil companies! But I digress. Last year, Independence Day fireworks fizzled out for many thanks to ever worsening droughts. And MSNBC reports the droughts have done it again this year: Autho ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, holiday, severe weather (all these topics)

Sorry, delayers and enablers, part two Climate change means worse droughts for American Southwest, Australia	Joseph Romm	25 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Part one presented the synopsis of the remarkable new U.S. Climate Change Science Program (a.k.a. the Bush Administration) report, Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate. One central point in the synopsis is Droughts are becoming more severe in some regions, though there are no clear trends for North America as a whole ... Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity. Seems pretty clear, no? Dry a ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

There will be flood The Midwest will suffer if we don't change our approach to flood protection	Guest author	23 Jun 2008	Gristmill
This is a guest essay by Mary Kelly, the head of Environmental Defense Fund's rivers and deltas program. ----- We've heard a lot this week about how the floods in the Midwest might be an act of humans -- or an act of City Council, as one Iowan leader put it. We can start the futile cycle of fighting Mother Nature again if we want to: spend billions of dollars on levees and flood control infrastructure, encouraging development of river floodplains and low-lying wet ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, Iowa, severe weather (all these topics)

Thinking outside the Oxfam Four short films explore how climate change affects women worldwide	Holly Richmond	18 Jun 2008	Gristmill
'Is climate change a feminist issue?' NewScientist enviro blogger Catherine Brahic asked last week, then answered, '[F]or me, climate change is not a gender issue. Climate change will not affect women more than men.' She was responding to several short films Oxfam recently produced that profile four women in Brazil, Uganda, the U.K., and Bangladesh. The films explore their experiences educating others in their communities about, and ameliorating, the effects o ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate equity, gender, severe weather (all these topics)

After the deluge As Midwest floods recede, what's being washed into the groundwater?	Tom Philpott	16 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Flooded road in eastern Iowa. Photo: Dan Patterson Things are grim in Iowa, arguably the epicenter of global industrial food production. If Iowa were a nation, it would be the globe's second-largest corn producer, behind only China. The state leads the U.S. [PDF] in the production of corn, hogs, and eggs, and ranks number two in soybeans.In short, it's a rotten place for a massive, flood-inducing early-summer deluge. Of the state's 99 counties, 24 have been ...
Topics: agriculture, climate, climate change impacts, health, industrial ag, Iowa, severe weather (all these topics)

Still, waters run deep Mainstream media misses connection between global warming and Midwest floods	Joseph Romm	12 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The British and the Chinese understand global warming has driven their record flooding. The United States? Not so much. Although you wouldn't know it from most U.S. media coverage, the record 'once-in-a-hundred-year flooding' the Midwest now seems to be getting every decade or so is precisely what scientists have been expecting from the warming. A 2004 analysis [PDF] by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center found an increase during the 20th century of 'precipitation ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics)

Global boiling Senators ignore the warning signs	Brad Johnson	10 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Originally posted at the Think Progress Wonk Room. Recently, the United States Senate has taken several votes on building a green economy that moves away from fossil fuel dependence, creates new green industry, and addresses global warming. Each time, a minority of senators blocked the way. On Friday, 38 senators filibustered mandatory greenhouse-gas reduction legislation (S. 3036). This morning, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) joined 41 Republicans to filibuster the Cons ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, legislation, politics, severe weather (all these topics)

It actually doesn't fall on the plain ... or anywhere else Spain experiencing severe drought due to climate change	Joseph Romm	03 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Warming-driven desertification is spreading. Australia has gotten the most attention, but Spain is also turning into a desert. As Time reported: Spain is in the grip of its worst drought in a century as a result of climate change -- this year's total rainfall, for example, has been 40 percent lower than average for the equivalent period, and the country's reservoirs are, on average, only 30 percent full. The reservoirs serving Barcelona are only 20 percent full, and ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, desertification, severe weather, Spain, water crisis (all these topics)

Florida faces unfavorable tide New report calls for climate action, but not everyone's listening	Miles Grant	30 May 2008	Gristmill
With more coastline than any state in the lower 48 and about a tenth of its economy ($65 billion a year) based on tourism, Florida has more to lose than any other state from the threats of global warming. Rising sea levels creep closer to coastal development. Warmer tropics fuel stronger hurricanes. And higher ocean temperatures kill coral and harm fish populations, threatening the state's $4.5 billion sportfishing industry. Plenty of reasons that a report released y ...
Topics: climate, climate change impacts, Florida, habitat protection, legislation, severe weather, state politics (all these topics)

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