From GRL: Even though the arctic zone of continuous permafrost has relatively cold mean annual air temperatures, we found an abrupt, large increase in the extent of permafrost degradation in northern Alaska since 1982, associated with record warm temperatures during 1989–1998. Our field studies revealed that the recent degradation has mainly occurred to massive wedges …
Center for Clean Air Policy: “(W)e conclude that Governor Schwarzenegger’s goal of reducing GHG emissions to 2000 levels by 2010 can be met at no net cost to California consumers.” I’ve made no effort to judge the validity of this work. I merely pass this along as a data point in the discussion.
There’s a good good post on Prometheus about a new paper by anthropologist Myanna Lahsen on the culture of climate modelers. The bottom line is the way modelers tend to believe their own models – to substitute them in their own mind for reality. It reminded me of a paper published last year in which …
My story on Johannes Feddema’s paper on the global effects of land use changes finally ran in this morning’s paper. Forgive the headline. I tried to play the bait and switch game in the story and I guess I didn’t get away with it – at least with the copy editor who wrote the headline. …
In the comments over at RealClimate, Bradfield Lyon posted links to a couple of excellent global drought monitoring resources: Global Weighted Anomaly Standardized Precipitation indexes, and Global Standardized Precipitation Indexes Rasmus had discussed the potential for global warming to have been implicated in the current drought in the Amazon, and I had asked the underlying …
Benny Peiser, in the comments below, suggests I am misleading my readers and asks that I set the record straight. So let me quote from both Benny’s CCNet email and the Xu et al. paper. First Benny’s CCnet subject line: NEW STUDY: “SOLAR ACTIVITY IS PRIMARY DRIVING FORCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE” Now Xu et al., …
There are essentially two ways societies can respond to drought. One is societal adaption – stored water and food (or water and food trading), limits on growth during wet times, or mobility to move from dry places to wet places. The other is to just ignore reality (or not understand the reality) and then get …
Benny Peiser last week sent ’round a note on his CCNet list about a study just published by Hai Xu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the solar-climate link. “New study – Solar Activity is Primary Driving Force of Climate Change” was Benny’s subject line. The paper wasn’t on line for free, …
Rick Piltz, the guy who left the U.S. Climate Change Science Program in a highly visible way last summer, has a piece in the Dec. 27 issue of the American Geophysical Union’s Eos, calling for a “Second U.S. National Climate Change Assessment.” Piltz argues that the National Assessment, completed in 2000, was “a pioneering experiment …
Interesting interview with hurricane guy Kerry Emanuel in today’s New York Times. Q. There are scientists who say of fossil fuel consumption and global warming, We may not have all the evidence yet, but we ought to be acting as if the worst could happen. Do you agree? A. It’s always struck me as odd …