The highest mountain “tundra” terrains of the Western United States are disappearing because of warming temperatures, according to a new paper by Henry Diaz and Jon Eischeid: In the last 20 years (1987–2006), rising temperatures have caused a significant fraction of these areas to exceed the 10°C threshold for alpine tundra classification. The result has …
Death Valley averages about two inches (50 mm) of rain a year, but it’s been on the dry side there in 2007, making what happened there this week all the more remarkable: Prior to today the yearly rainfall total in Death Valley was 0.10 of an inch. As of 2 p.m. PT, Death Valley had …
Robert Krier has a fascinating piece in this morning’s San Diego Union Tribune suggesting a linkage between arctic melting and drought in the Southwest: Three years ago, computer forecast models predicted that in 2050, the reduced ice mass would cause climate shifts that would result in a drought in the western United States. But the …
From AFP: Prime Minister John Howard warned against linking Australia’s worst drought on record to doomsday forecasts about climate change Wednesday, saying “a sense of proportion” was needed.
New NASA data in Eos today shows remarkable melting in Greenland: A new NASA-supported study reports that 2007 marked an overall rise in the melting trend over the entire Greenland ice sheet and, remarkably, melting in high-altitude areas was greater than ever at 150 percent more than average. In fact, the amount of snow that …
The price of Australian wine is predicted to soar as the country’s crippling drought threatens to halve next year’s grape harvest.
Today’s paper of the day is Regional climate change over eastern Amazonia caused by pasture and soybean cropland expansion: Field observations and numerical studies revealed that large scale deforestation in Amazonia could alter the regional climate significantly, projecting a warmer and somewhat drier post-deforestation climate. Sampaio, G., C. Nobre, M. H. Costa, P. Satyamurty, B. …
Rio Grande Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Looking south down the Rio Grande from the Paseo del Norte Bridge in Albuquerque Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007. That’s maybe 450 cubic feet per second of flow, which is getting down toward what they call “base flow“. That’s the minimum flow in a desert river, the point at which …
The problem with meat is that it’s yummy. But it’s also probably the lowest hanging greenhouse gas reduction fruit in the developed world. Simon Donner has more: In order to achieve the twin goals of reducing poverty and fighting climate change, we will need to decrease the GHG emissions required to produce a gram of …
Via Stoat comes word that the fight against global warming does not come without a price: The British Surfing Association (BSA) and the environmental campaign group Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) back the principle of wave power and the Wave Hub project. But they remain worried that if the size of the project is increased or …