cactus flowers May 2007
cactus flowers May 2007 Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. Lissa’s picture of one of her front yard cactus. In the desert, when it rains, they’re happy. And this May, it has rained.
Archive of posts filed under the climate variability category.
Global Warming or Climate Change
There’s a longstanding debate about whether we should use “climate change” or “global warming” in describe the global climate change-warming thingie. In that regard, this data from Google’s new search terms trends monitoring tool: This is the relative use by people searching on Google of the terms “global warming” (blue line) and “climate change” (red …
Climate Change and the Colorado River
Brad Udall at the Western Water Assessment has written an extremely helpful summary of the history of research into the effects of climate change on the Colorado River. It is interesting to note a consistent message in nearly 30 years of work on this question: the sign is nearly always negative. There’s not a whole …
Discussing the Coming Dust Bowl
Roger Pielke Sr. and I have been having a polite disagreement today over at his blog on how to think about Richard Seager’s paper last month in Science on the risk of future drought in the southwest. Roger argues Seager’s work is contradicted by a 1997 paper by Trenberth and Hoar arguing for stronger El …
Various Canaries
the “canary in the climate change coal mine” wine (see also Napa Valley) the boreal forests of Quebec Perth Australian ski resorts the Sahel polar bears trout Alaska (see also the Arctic, which has been subject to expert peer review) the Northeast (this would be US) mountains November Tuvalu Flamingo (the former Florida town, not …
The Innovation Frame
An example of framing in the statement out today from the national academies of 13 nations: Major investments and successful technological and institutional innovation will be needed to achieve better energy efficiency, low- or zero-carbon energy sources and carbon-removing schemes. A clear area for increased investment is energy conservation and efficiency. This has immediate and …
Daybook
Big Toe Helps on Moving Day Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. paper of the day: Mendoza et al. in Climatic Change look at Maya droughts over the last several centuries weather: Hottest day so far this year in Albuquerque at 84F (29C), warm enough for a lovely chat on the back porch at a party last …
Evaluating the IPCC
Benny Peiser sent around a circular yesterday to his CCNet list about a potentially interesting project: CALL FOR PAPERS: THE IPCC: STRUCTURE, PROCESS AND POLITICS During the last decade, climate experts and government officials from more than 100 countries have unanimously agreed the key findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s …
Stuff I Wrote Elsewhere
On the latest La Nina forecast, out today, along with the New Mexico streamflow forecast that came out yesterday: The Climate Prediction Center’s monthly El Nino – La Nina update is out today with an increasingly solid forecast of a La Nina (meaning dry here) winter of 2007-08: [A]tmospheric and oceanic conditions continue to indicate …
South Carolina Drought
Government officials in South Carolina are on drought alert: The Drought Response Committee put the entire state in an incipient drought Tuesday, which is the first of four stages of drought. The declaration warns water system managers to closely monitor their reservoirs. The Department of Natural Resources also will begin to more carefully monitor conditions …