IPCC Precipitation Map Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. By what seems like a series of coincidences (or not?), I’ve been reading and writing and trying to write lately about maps – the information in them, the things cartographers leave out of them, their implications for understanding things about the world around us, and also the choices …
Who knew there was skiing in Bolivia? Not any more, apparently: Their pride in the ski resort here, the only one in Bolivia, soon gives way to a grim acceptance that the glacier that once surrounded the lodge with copious amounts of snow and ice is melting fast. Attributing the melting to the growing emission …
I tried my hardest, but despite my best efforts I just can’t avoid writing about the IPCC. I’ve gotta tell folks in New Mexico something. Hey, it could be worse. At least we don’t really see hurricanes, what with not having any oceans nearby. Much more tomorrow.
I know that you can’t blame a single drought, heat wave, hurricane, etc., on climate change. But the current drought in Australia has clearly become part of the political dynamic there. Consider a couple of stories on the wire this morning. First this: Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage …
An inch of snow when I measured this morning at my house – 0.14 inches of precip when melted. 0.12 at the airport. That’s a total of 0.18 total at the airport this month, as compared to an average of 0.5. It’s been wetter at my house – 0.49 inches. But it shows that a …
The folks at the Government Accountability Project have released a report, done in conjunction with the Union of Concerned Scientists, about government interference in climate science: • Nearly half of all respondents (46 percent of all respondents to the question) perceived or personally experienced pressure to eliminate the words “climate change,” “global warming,” or other …
Continue reading ‘Government Interference in Climate Science’ »
I recently picked up Bob Henson’s Rough Guide to Climate Change, and I must say it fills a great niche. I’m a fan of Andrew Dessler’s book, which is a great primer. But (sorry, Dr. D) it’s a bit on the wonkish side. Henson’s book has a Rough Guide snap to it that makes it …
One of the padres in New Mexico sent a letter home back in the 1600s expressing amazement that the residents of Gran Quivira, one of the pueblos near Albuquerque, saved their urine for use in the muds they used in building. It’s a dry place, you do stuff: Residents in tropical Queensland state will soon …
Western South Dakota is one of those classic drought cases. It was extraordinarily wet there during the 1990s, well above the long term mean. Of the 10 wettest years in a century of records in northwest South Dakota, four came during the 1990s. An astonishing six years during the 1990s were greater than one standard …
Drought-induced famine is largely a political rather than climatological disaster, as this account by Teshome Erkineh of response to drought conditions in Ethiopia demonstrates. It happens when societies, for whatever reason, fail to cope with climate variability. A million people died in 1983-84 because of drought. In 2003, under what was a more severe drought …