Global Climate Change Science News

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macdoc
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Global Climate Change Science News

Post by macdoc » Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:37 pm

This is hopefully a stickied continuation from the threads of the same name at Dawkins....
This thread is for Science News Only and not intended for discussions whether or not climate change occurs or whether there are conspiracies, political agendas, etc.
for the moment until dawkins closes here are the links to the threads....all 115 pages of articles from main stream climate and science sources

Most current
http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtop ... =5&t=74571

previous thread

http://forum.richarddawkins.net/viewtopic.php?p=1739008

Would like to keep the same format without discussion but with full attribution etc pending mod approval
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Woodbutcher » Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:39 pm

I'd like that. This thread was the one I always read in RDF.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by JimC » Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:00 am

As macdoc said, folks, we will keep this for posting factual articles or links - there will be other threads for discussion...
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Steve » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:01 am

:pop: Bookmarked. Or should that be Pockmarked...?

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Fact-Man » Wed Feb 24, 2010 7:21 am

JimC wrote:As macdoc said, folks, we will keep this for posting factual articles or links - there will be other threads for discussion...
Indeed, one has already been created in this forum.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by macdoc » Wed Feb 24, 2010 6:41 pm

I pulled down the complete archive for both threads 115 pages in webarchive format - 26 gigs - working on a host site for it so it can be access and searched.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Tarby » Sat Feb 27, 2010 9:25 pm

macdoc wrote:I pulled down the complete archive for both threads 115 pages in webarchive format - 26 gigs - working on a host site for it so it can be access and searched.
You're a diamond. :td:

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by macdoc » Sun Feb 28, 2010 5:53 am

Permafrost Line Recedes 130 Km in 50 Years, Canadian Study Finds

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Pictured are lichen and shrub--covered palsas surrounded by a pond resulting from melting permafrost in a bog near the village of Radisson, Canada. (Credit: Serge Payette)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — The southern limit of permanently frozen ground, or permafrost, is now 130 kilometers further north than it was 50 years ago in the James Bay region, according to two researchers from the Department of Biology at Université Laval.

In a recent issue of the scientific journal Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, Serge Payette and Simon Thibault suggest that, if the trend continues, permafrost in the region will completely disappear in the near future.

The researchers measured the retreat of the permafrost border by observing hummocks known as "palsas," which form naturally over ice contained in the soil of northern peat bogs. Conditions in these mounds are conducive to the development of distinct vegetation -- lichen, shrubs, and black spruce -- that make them easy to spot in the field.

In an initial survey in 2004, the researchers examined seven bogs located between the 51st and 53rd parallels. They noted at that time that only two of the bogs contained palsas, whereas aerial photos taken in 1957 showed palsas present in all of the bogs. A second assessment in 2005 revealed that the number of palsas present in these two bogs had decreased over the course of one year by 86% and 90% respectively.

Helicopter flyovers between the 51st and 55th parallels also revealed that the palsas are in an advanced state of deterioration over the entire James Bay area.

While climate change is the most probable explanation for this phenomenon, the lack of long term climatic data for the area makes it impossible for the researchers to officially confirm this. Professor Payette notes, however, that the average annual temperature of the northern sites he has studied for over 20 years has increased by 2 degrees Celsius.

"If this trend keeps up, what is left of the palsas in the James Bay bogs will disappear altogether in the near future, and it is likely that the permafrost will suffer the same fate," concludes the researcher affiliated to the Centre d'études nordiques.


Story Source:

Adapted from materials provided by Université Laval, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Journal Reference:

Simon Thibault, Serge Payette. Recent permafrost degradation in bogs of the James Bay area, northern Quebec, Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2009; 20 (4): 383 DOI: 10.1002/ppp.660
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 101129.htm
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by Fact-Man » Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:51 am

This is probably good news.
China, India Join Copenhagen Accord, Last Major Emitters To Sign On

ARTHUR MAX | 03/ 9/10 02:24 PM | Associated Press

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/0 ... 91640.html

AMSTERDAM: China joined India on Tuesday in giving qualified approval to the Copenhagen climate accord calling for voluntary limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

The official messages to the U.N. climate change secretariat did little to ease the pessimism that a legal international agreement on global warming can be concluded this year.

A one-sentence note from China's top climate change negotiator, Su Wei, authorized the addition of China to the list attached to the nonbinding accord brokered by President Barack Obama in the final hours of the December climate change summit in the Danish capital.

India sent a note on Monday that it "stands by the contents of the accord."

More than 100 countries had earlier replied to a query by Denmark whether they wanted to be "associated" with the accord.

The delayed response by the world's two fastest growing polluters had raised concerns that without their concurrence the accord could fall apart.

Now, their avoidance of the word "associated" was being seen as deliberate and possibly a step to distance themselves from full endorsement.

The responses to the Danish question highlight the gulf that remains after the disappointing conference in Copenhagen. The summit fell well short of its original ambition of a legally binding treaty controlling the world's emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.

The accord, concluded in a flurry of last-minute diplomacy, set a goal of limiting the increase in the Earth's average temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 Fahrenheit) from preindustrial levels. But it did not say how that can be achieved or how countries should share the burden of cutting carbon emissions.

It also said developing countries should be given $30 billion over the next three years to help them cope with changes already occurring in rainfall patterns and other effects of climate change. So far, no proposals are on the table for raising or distributing those funds.

The European Union's climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, told the EU parliament in Brussels on Tuesday it would be risky to expect a legally binding deal to emerge from the next climate summit in Cancun, Mexico.

Hedegaard told the European Parliament that "remaining differences between parties may delay agreement on this until next year."

Among those differences are whether the U.N. negotiations among 194 countries, bogged down in cumbersome committees producing highly contentious draft texts, should be the primary avenue for reaching a deal.

The United States has said the Copenhagen Accord should be taken as the basis for negotiations leading up to a full legal agreement in Mexico.

In its note this week, India strongly disagreed. "The Accord is not a new track of negotiations or a template for outcomes," said India's environment secretary Rajani Ranjan Rashmi.

In a letter dated in January, Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa also said "it is neither viable nor acceptable to start a new negotiating process" outside the framework of previous U.N. treaties.

Wen's letter, however, praised the Copenhagen Accord in warmer tones than the official note received Tuesday. He said China "highly commends and supports" the December deal.
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by ginckgo » Thu Mar 18, 2010 10:28 pm

The Age wrote: City's hot 100 smashes record for run of warm days
ADAM MORTON
March 19, 2010


MELBOURNE'S temperature has topped 20 degrees for the past 100 days straight, the longest stretch of its type in more than 150 years of measurement.

Yesterday's maximum of 31 degrees continued a run of 20-plus degree days that began on December 9 last year.

It has smashed the record of 78 days with a maximum of more than 20 degrees in the summer of December 2000-01.

The Bureau of Meteorology's head of climate analysis and prediction, David Jones, said forecasts suggested the string of days warmer than 20 degrees could extend for at least another seven days.

He said it was part of a longer warm period across the state extending back to last winter.

''The whole of Australia has been exceptionally warm, and the mean temperature across Victoria over the past nine months has been the warmest on record,'' Dr Jones said.

''It continues this storyline of a planet that continues to warm.''

The British Met Office has predicted that it was more likely than not that 2010 would be the world's hottest year on record due to global warming linked to greenhouse gas emissions and a warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean due to El Nino.
It's probably all just urban heat island effect, right?

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by ginckgo » Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:34 am

Looks like Global Warming actually has a beneficial effect on political tensions:
India Times wrote:Till the early 1980s, New Moore Island was claimed by both India and Bangladesh. Dhaka called it South Talpatti island. With the 3-km long and 3.5-km wide island disappearing, an irritant in Indo-Bangladeshi ties may have gone.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by BenBurch » Sat Mar 27, 2010 7:41 pm

ginckgo wrote:Looks like Global Warming actually has a beneficial effect on political tensions:
India Times wrote:Till the early 1980s, New Moore Island was claimed by both India and Bangladesh. Dhaka called it South Talpatti island. With the 3-km long and 3.5-km wide island disappearing, an irritant in Indo-Bangladeshi ties may have gone.
Destroy all of Pakistan and all of India and there will be no issue any more of any sort. This does not recommend this course of action, however.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by macdoc » Mon Mar 29, 2010 8:31 pm

ouch
CSIRO/BOM: Record heat/climate needs science focus


Melbourne warms to a record long, hot summer

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 19 March, 2010 : - - Melbourne has recorded its 100th day in a row when the maximum temperature has exceeded 20 degrees Celsius. Forecasts suggest the record run may extend into next week, at least. The last time Melbourne recorded a maximum temperature of less than 20 degrees was 8 December last year.

Melbourne’s string of warm days far exceeds the previous record of 78 days, set between 29 December 2000 and 16 March 2001. Records in Melbourne date back to 1855.

Image

Melbourne’s record run reflects the very warm conditions that have been experienced across Victoria since the start of last winter. Victoria’s mean temperature for the nine months from June 2009 to February 2010 is 15.3 degrees, the highest on record, and is 1.4 degrees above the 1961-90 average. The previous record of 15.1 degrees was set in 1980.

Source BO
CSIRO/BOM: Record heat/climate needs science focus
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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by ginckgo » Tue Mar 30, 2010 12:26 am

BenBurch wrote:
ginckgo wrote:Looks like Global Warming actually has a beneficial effect on political tensions:
India Times wrote:Till the early 1980s, New Moore Island was claimed by both India and Bangladesh. Dhaka called it South Talpatti island. With the 3-km long and 3.5-km wide island disappearing, an irritant in Indo-Bangladeshi ties may have gone.
Destroy all of Pakistan and all of India and there will be no issue any more of any sort. This does not recommend this course of action, however.
Not quite the same thing, unless Kashmir gets flooded.

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Re: Global Climate Change Science News

Post by macdoc » Tue Mar 30, 2010 8:23 pm

I like this mitigation approach////
Could Tiny Bubbles Cool the Planet?
by Eli Kintisch on March 26, 2010 11:33 AM | Permanent Link | 32 Comments

Image
Making waves. Seeding the oceans with bubbles much smaller than those created by crashing waves could help cool the planet.
Credit: Hemera/Thinkstock

PACIFIC GROVE, CALIFORNIA—In an effort to curb global warming, scientists have proposed everything from launching sunlight-blocking dust into the stratosphere to boosting the number of carbon-sucking algae in the oceans. Now, a Harvard University physicist has come up with a new way to cool parts of the planet: pump vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures. “Since water covers most of the earth, don’t dim the sun,” says the scientist, Russell Seitz, speaking from an international meeting on geoengineering research here. “Brighten the water.”

Natural bubbles already brighten turbulent seas and provide a luster known as “undershine” below the ocean’s surface. But these bubbles only lightly brighten the planet, contributing less than one-tenth of 1% of Earth’s reflectivity, or albedo. What Seitz imagines is pumping even smaller bubbles, about one-five-hundredth of a millimeter in diameter, into the sea. Such "microbubbles" are essentially "mirrors made of air," says Seitz, and they might be created off boats by using devices that mix water supercharged with compressed air into swirling jets of water. “I’m emulating a natural ocean phenomenon and amplifying it just by changing the physics—the ingredients remain the same."

Computer simulations show that tiny bubbles could have a profound cooling effect. Using a model that simulates how light, water, and air interact, Seitz found that microbubbles could double the reflectivity of water at a concentration of only one part per million by volume. When Seitz plugged that data into a climate model, he found that the microbubble strategy could cool the planet by up to 3°C. He has submitted a paper on the concept he calls “Bright Water" to the journal Climatic Change.

In addition to helping curb global warming, the microbubble strategy could also help conserve water by reducing evaporation in rivers and lakes, says Seitz. That’s a problem that leads to the loss of billions of tons of freshwater each year in California alone.

Seitz says adding bubbles to a 1-square-kilometer patch of ocean is feasible, but scaling it up may be technically difficult. Energy is not the limiting factor, he says, estimating that the energy output of 1000 windmills might be sufficient to add bubbles to an entire ocean. The larger challenge to large-scale deployment, he says, would be ensuring that the bubbles last as long as possible. In nature, a bubble’s lifetime depends on the level of dissolved organic matter and nanoparticles, without which small bubbles rapidly shrink and disappear. If the water is too clean, the bubbles might not last long enough to be effectively spread over large areas, Seitz says.

One way to test the viability of the idea might be to study the impact of bubbles created in the wakes of ships, says oceanographer Peter Brewer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California. "It's something nobody's talked about," he says of Seitz’s technique.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2 ... -plan.html
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