El Niño Update
The latest ENSO forecast is out this morning: El Niño conditions are likely to continue through May 2007. The models are clustering around a relatively modest affair.
Archive of entries posted by jfleck
A New Mexican Insurgency
My colleague Tania Soussan wrote Saturday about what Andrew Dessler has described as “the climate change insurgency“: Cars with dramatically better gas mileage. More energy-efficient houses and offices. Doubling the renewable energy flowing through New Mexico’s grid. Those are among the 69 recommendations announced Friday by a special climate advisory group created by Gov. Bill …
The Rising Cost of Bread in Australia
The cost of Australian bread is on the rise: Bushman’s Bakery, which has six outlets in the Coffs Harbour area, has told customers the drought has pushed the price of a loaf of bread up by 20 cents. Owner Dally Sullivan says there is no choice but to pass on the cost. “We were notified …
What Tree Is This?
tree on San Mateo2 12-06 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Anyone have a clue what kind of tree this is? Photo by L. Heineman, fall 2006, on San Mateo NE in Albuquerque.
That Badass Paleo Record
More evidence of the naivety of assuming that the 20th century climate record is sufficient to capture the range of variability with which we’ve got to be able to cope. Tian et al in GRL looked at calcite layers in Minnesota lake sediments: [D]roughts of greater severity and duration than during the 20th century occurred …
Snow
We had a tad of snow when I awoke yesterday morning. Jimbo up in Los Alamos did a bit better.
The Horror
As if drought, famine, rising sea level inundating coastal cities and the cancellation of international ski competitions were not enough, my colleague Dan McKay in this morning’s paper catalogues a previously unmentioned and potentially devastating consequence of global warming: It could harm Albuquerque’s famed balloon fiesta, “the world’s most photographed annual event.” Worrying about the …
Radioactive Laundry Lint
There’s a phrase that’s never appeared in the Googleverse. Until now.
Accepting the science
From Saturday’s Washington Post: “We have to deal with greenhouse gases,” John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., said in a recent speech at the National Press Club. “From Shell’s point of view, the debate is over. When 98 percent of scientists agree, who is Shell to say, ‘Let’s debate the science’?” The interesting bit …
Where the Nukes Are
If you’ve ever wondered where those “secret” underground bunkers are where they keep all our nukes, the Nuclear Notebook guys, Hans Kristensen and Stan Norris, have poked virtual pushpins into a Google Earth map. (Hint to Albuquerque readers: some are right under your nose, and I don’t mean at the Ghost Mall.) More on Hans’s …