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 posts filed under the climate variability category.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Climate Catastrophe
Never mind drought, famine, rising sea level inundating coastal cities, etc. This is serious: High temperatures in Europe have disrupted the Alpine skiing World Cup, throwing the calendar of the sport’s premier circuit into disarray and raising questions about the future of a sport so vulnerable to climate change. “It will very quickly be a …
It’s Not the Fall that Kills You
From Somalia: The flood-hit communities in southern Somalia were already vulnerable because they had not recovered from the severe drought of earlier this year when they lost thousands of livestock and had no harvest. “Juba has been in a chronic humanitarian crisis,” said Cindy Holleman, technical manager with Somalia’s Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU), a …
Anticipation
charger Originally uploaded by heinemanfleck. The artist L. Heineman made the decorations for our Thanksgiving table today in the manner of the season. We’ve a big feast planned, which is both cultural ritual obligation and genuine fun. This is an interesting time of year in a desert culture both removed from environmental but also steeped …
Dessler’s Back
It’s not that Andy Dessler’s been gone, actually, but in his move over to Grist, there wasn’t any way to get an RSS feed of just his stuff. Being an RSS junkie, I would forget to go directly, and missed some good stuff. Apparently I’m not alone, so Andy’s going to do some sort of …