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Author |
Published |
Section |
The tipping of the iceberg
New sea-level rise research, part 1: 'Most likely' 0.8 to 2.0 meters by 2100 |
Joseph Romm |
05 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Two major new studies, in Nature and Science, sharply increase the projected sea-level rise (SLR) by 2100. This post discusses the Science study ($ub. req'd), 'Kinematic Constraints on Glacier Contributions to 21st-Century Sea-Level Rise,' which concludes: On the basis of calculations presented here, we suggest that an improved estimate of the range of SLR to 2100 including increased ice dynamics lies between 0.8 and 2.0 m. ... these values give a context and start ... |
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| Topics: oceans, climate science, climate change impacts, climate (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, climate change impacts, severe weather, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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Speak softly and carry a big hockey stick
Earth hotter now than in past 2,000 years |
Joseph Romm |
04 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The 'hockey stick' graph is a reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere temperatures over the past thousand years. It showed a sharp rise starting about a century ago. Global warming deniers and doubters have long attacked the graph asserting that we were as warm if not warmer hundreds of years ago. But a 2006 National Academy of Sciences report largely reaffirmed the analysis. A new peer-reviewed study by climatologists and earth scientists Michael Mann, Zhihua Zha ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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I'll Huff and I'll Puff ...
Warming seas make strong storms stronger, says new study |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, news, severe weather (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, politics, severe weather (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Henry Hudson would be delighted
North Pole an 'island' for first time in 125,000 years |
Joseph Romm |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The fabled Northwest and Northeast passages are now open. That makes the North Pole an island for the first time in human history, most likely for the first time 'since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago.' In the last few days, however, Arctic ice melt has slowed, so we might not see a record this year, as the NSIDC daily graph makes clear: But whether a record is set this year has little bearing on the future of the Arctic. The National Snow ... |
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| Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans (all these topics) |
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Stick It to 'Em
Conclusions of 'hockey stick' graph stand up to further scrutiny |
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02 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:42 PM on 02 Sep 2008 The infamous "hockey stick" graph, which shows the northern hemisphere beginning to rapidly warm around the industrial age, has been backed up by new research. Michael Mann, who helped develop the 1998 graph that climate skeptics love to hate, is the lead author of the new study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Ten years ago the ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change skepticism, climate science, news (all these topics) |
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Science debate 2008
A presidential pop quiz on energy, water, scientific integrity, oceans, and climate change |
Maywa Montenegro |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Barack Obama's answers to the 14 top science questions facing America. (McCain is still working on his answers.) |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, John McCain, climate science, climate, politics (all these topics) |
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Gustav, climate, drilling, McCain, Palin
Some enviros self-censor, but should progressives? |
Joseph Romm |
01 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A friend forwarded me an email titled "Gustav and Hannah" that was written to environmental activists by one of the top environmental leaders in this country. I am going to write on it at length because it is illustrative of the catastrophic messaging failure of the environmental community on issues of climate, government action, and energy. I strongly believe other progressives must not make the same mistakes. Here are key quotes from the email about ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, elections, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08, Sarah Palin, severe weather (all these topics) |
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'Seven years to climate midnight'
Brookings calls for action on climate change in WaPo op-ed |
Joseph Romm |
28 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The uber-centrist Brookings Institution joins the climate alarmist realist crowd. President Strobe Talbott and VP for foreign policy studies Carlos Pascual explain in a Washington Post op-ed: The world may have only seven years to start reducing the annual buildup in greenhouse gas emissions that otherwise threatens global catastrophe within several decades. The politics are a little bland for my taste, but that's to be expected from Brookings, which has moved cl ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, elections, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
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In the zone
Must-have slide No. 1: The narrow temperature window that gave us modern human civilization |
Joseph Romm |
28 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I am starting a new feature and a new category for must-have PowerPoint slides. I'll begin with my favorite new slide, which shows just how stable the climate has been over the 10,000-year period that allowed modern human civilization to develop and flourish (click figure for larger version): The slide is a must-have because it captures the risk we are taking while also providing a quick visual rebuttal to a very common denier talking point, one that NASA adminis ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions, James Hansen (all these topics) |
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Hansen's still got it
Right for 27 years: 1981 Hansen study finds warming trend that could raise sea levels |
Joseph Romm |
28 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| 'After all, just 20 years ago scientists were worried about the new Ice Age.' This myth is so potent for deniers from Michael Crichton to George Will to Senator James Inhofe that even word guru and strategist Frank 'death tax' Luntz made it a recommended line of attack in his super-slimy 2002 memo to conservatives on how best to cast doubt on climate science. Why do deniers love it so? It makes present global-warming fears seem faddish, saying current climate scienc ... |
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| Topics: James Hansen, greenhouse-gas emissions, climate science, climate (all these topics) |
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The great melting spot
NSIDC: Arctic shortcuts open up; decline pace steady |
Joseph Romm |
26 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Fresh from its Olympic-record in denier debunking, the National Snow and Ice Data Center has released a new update: Sea ice extent is declining at a fairly brisk and steady pace. Surface melt has mostly ended, but the decline will continue for two to three more weeks because of melt from the bottom and sides of the ice. Amundsen's Northwest Passage is now navigable; the wider, deeper Northwest Passage through Parry Channel may also open in a matter of days. The North ... |
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| Topics: climate change impacts, Arctic, climate, climate science (all these topics) |
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The 100-meter retract
A new Olympic record for retraction of a mistaken analysis of NSIDC data |
Joseph Romm |
26 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The gold medal goes to Steven Goddard of The Register. On Friday, Aug. 15, he published a scathing article, 'Arctic ice refuses to melt as ordered: There's something rotten north of Denmark' attacking the National Snow and Ice Data Center plot of Arctic Sea Ice Extent (below) that I and pretty much everyone else on the planet use. Based on some (mis)analysis too obscure for mortal men and women to follow, he concluded 'The problem is that this graph does not ap ... |
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| Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, scientific research (all these topics) |
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In hot water
Ocean temperture levels indicate planet has kept warming since 1998 |
Joseph Romm |
21 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| As part of their climate myth series, New Scientist cuts through the nonsense on what's happened globally in the last decade: In fact, the planet as a whole has warmed since 1998, even in the years when surface temperatures have fallen.According to the dataset of the UK Met Office Hadley Centre (see figure, right), 1998 was the warmest year by far since records began, but since 2003 there has been slight cooling.But according to the dataset of NASA's Goddard Inst ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans, scientific research (all these topics) |
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At Least Buy Us All Umbrellas
Science orgs plead for more funding for severe-weather preparation |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change adaptation, climate change impacts, climate science, news, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Is Obama's energy plan change we can believe in?
Toward a sensible energy plan |
Jon Rynn |
20 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest post by Ted Glick, the policy director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network/U.S. Climate Emergency Council. He can be reached at usajointheworld@igc.org. He is author of 'Past Future Hope' columns. ----- On August 4, the Barack Obama presidential campaign released a comprehensive program for reform of the U.S. energy system. In the words of Obama supporter, climate blogger, and author Joe Romm, it was 'easily the best energy plan ever put forward by a ... |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, carbon sequestration, climate, climate science, energy, nuclear power, presidential race 08, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Can't see the forest with the trees
IPCC needs to update projections to include deforestation feedbacks |
Joseph Romm |
20 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following post is by Ken Levenson, guest blogger at Climate Progress. ----- As deforestation accelerates and grows ever more concentrated the climate change consequences appear even greater than previously thought. As reported in New Scientist: Pristine temperate forest stores three times more carbon than currently estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and 60% more than plantation forests, according to research in Australia. T ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, deforestation, IPCC (all these topics) |
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Hedging hog
Note to media: Enough with the multiple hedges on climate science! |
Joseph Romm |
19 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In an otherwise fascinating story on the growing 'icebreaker gap' in the rapidly defrosting Arctic Ocean, NYT reporter Andy Revkin writes: Even with the increasing summer retreats of sea ice, which many polar scientists say probably are being driven in part by global warming caused by humans, there will always be enough ice in certain parts of the Arctic to require icebreakers. I do not view a quadruple-hedged climate impact attribution as acceptable for a major me ... |
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| Topics: Arctic, climate, climate science, mainstream media, oceans (all these topics) |
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Climate whiplash
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Andrew Dessler |
18 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| In a recent article in The New York Times, Andy Revkin talks about the whiplash effect: When science is testing new ideas, the result is often a two-papers-forward-one-paper-back intellectual tussle among competing research teams. When the work touches on issues that worry the public, affect the economy or polarize politics, the news media and advocates of all stripes dive in. Under nonstop scrutiny, conflicting findings can make news coverage veer from one extreme ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, mainstream media, scientific research (all these topics) |
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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 ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics) |
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The uncertainty agenda
Journalists need to evaluate strength of scientific consensus |
Andrew Dessler |
13 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| One of the biggest problems in the climate change debate is the fact that many people out there fail to understand the finer points of 'scientific consensus.' For an example of this misunderstanding, see Ron Rosenbaum's recent article in Slate. (h/t Dot Earth.) His article trots out one of the staples of the denial industry: Science has been wrong in the past, so how do we know that a scientific consensus on climate change is right? Because of this, reporters ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, mainstream media, scientific research (all these topics) |
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Ice bet
Arctic sea ice declines sharply in August |
Joseph Romm |
12 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The National Snow and Ice Data Center reported Monday that in the first 10 days of August, Arctic sea ice extent declined one million kilometers. Sea ice is now disappearing on a daily basis nearly 50 percent faster than it typically does this time of year. So the race is on again to see whether 2008 can repeat -- or beat -- the record set only last year. The NSIDC explains exactly what is going on in the Arctic this summer:Ice extent has begun to decline sharp ... |
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| Topics: Arctic, climate, climate science, oceans (all these topics) |
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