Rain Last Night
0.04 inch of rain overnight at my house (0.1 cm). First measurable precip since April 10. It looks from the COCORAHS map as though some folks down in the valley got a good soaking.
Archive of posts filed under the climate variability category.
Dust in the Sahel
I wrote a piece in Sunday’s newspaper about new work by Ben Cook at NASA Goddard and his colleagues about the role of dust in the Dust Bowl drought. As the name implies, we knew the Dust Bowl was dusty. The new bit here is a much more clear understanding of the role of dust …
The Importance of Political Viability
Environmental economist John Whitehead explains why he won’t sign the economists’ petition arguing for a 100 percent auction of carbon emission credits, rather than giving some of them away for free: Why won’t I sign? I agree with everything in the statement except for the 100% part. 100% auctions seems like a guarantee that some …
What Tipping Point?
Matthew Nisbet: Conventional wisdom pegged Gore’s film and media campaign as changing the nature of the debate in the public’s mind, but unfortunately this interpretation doesn’t hold up to the data.
Adapt or Die
From the BBC: Great tits cope well with warming: Researchers found that great tits are laying eggs earlier in the spring than they used to, keeping step with the earlier emergence of caterpillars. (via Belshaw)
Global Warming! DDT! Penguins!
In a sort of grand convergence of anti-environmental flypaper, a souffle of red meat, New Scientist just sent out this news flash: Penguins exposed to DDT from melting glaciers Decades after most countries stopped using the insecticide DDT, frozen stores of the chemical are now dripping out of melting Antarctic glaciers – and into penguins. …
My Connolley Number: 1
Lawrence Solomon: Next to Al Gore, William Connolley may be the world’s most influential person in the global warming debate. I’ll just point out that my Connolley number is 1. I am one degree of separation from greatness.
California Dry
California’s snowpack is collapsing, according to the LA Times: California communities face a strong possibility of water shortages and even mandatory rationing this summer because of record dry weather in March and April, a fast-shrinking snowpack and below-normal reservoir levels, state officials said Thursday. (via Aquafornia)
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
More on climate science in the New Mexico Republican Senate race, this time printed on pieces of paper and thrown in people’s driveways, old school style. (the Intertubes version is here): In taking those positions, Wilson and Pearce are out of step with the vast majority of climate scientists, who agree that Earth is warming …
What I need from climate science
Enough already with the global numbers. I get it. What I need from you smarty-pants climate scientists is better regional-scale modeling. Which is the point of this piece by Fred Pearce: “POLITICIANS seem to think that the science is a done deal,” says Tim Palmer. “I don’t want to undermine the IPCC, but the forecasts, …