Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were "just right" for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130403_greenlandicemelt.htm
Perhaps the most important result of this paper is the confirmation that while many people wrongly believe global warming has stalled over the past 10-15 years, in reality global warming has not paused, it has accelerated.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/202626/hot-water-global-warm
The March 11 editorial in the New York Times says the overriding reason President Obama should reject the Keystone XL pipeline is climate change.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/197221/climate-case-against-
Seems every day there is a new rally related to the environment. But in the 21st century, should we re-evaluate the effectiveness of a rally?
http://theenergycollective.com/globalwarmingisreal/187946/importance-o
According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. during January was 32.0°F, 1.6°F above the 20th century average, tying with 1958 as the 39th warmest January on record. Drought conditions remained entrenched across the Southeast, Great Plains, and the mountainous West.
The Senate confirmed John Kerry as a Secretary of State by a vote of 94 to 3. I believe this is a turning point in the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. Once again, I do not think that a man who had dedicated his Senate career to fighting catastrophic climate change would start his term as Secretary approving the expansion of one of the dirtiest sources of fossil fuels in the world.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/178816/kerry-keystone-xl-pip
Looking back, I underestimated the risks. The planet and the atmosphere seem to be absorbing less carbon than we expected, and emissions are rising pretty strongly. Some of the effects are coming through more quickly than we thought then.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/178351/nicholas-stern-i-got-
According to a new technical report, the effects of climate change will continue to threaten the health and vitality of U.S. coastal communities' social, economic and natural systems.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130125_coastalclimateimpact
I understand why fossil-fuel-funded conservatives assert that climate change is "liberal." By why do the Associated Press and Washington Post fall into the label trap? Now even Rasmussen, a firm with a well-known conservative bias, found in a poll the day before the election that 68% of American voters see global warming as a "serious problem."
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/177621/washpost-and-ap-obama
In many ways meeting the challenge of climate change and sustainable development is often most effective at the municipal level. Cities strike a balance between meeting the diverse needs of its inhabitants with the ability to adopt and adapt to the realities and challenges of global warming, development, infrastructure and energy.
http://theenergycollective.com/globalwarmingisreal/176211/meeting-clim
An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study. These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/174561/climate-change-driven
According to NOAA scientists, the globally-averaged annual combined land and ocean surface temperature in 2012 was 1.03°F (0.57°C) above the 20th-century average of 57.0°F (13.9°C). The annual report also found that all 12 years of the 21st century (2001-2012) rank among the 14 warmest in the 133-year period of record.
2012 was a historic year for extreme weather that included drought, wildfires, hurricanes and storms; however, tornado activity was below average, according to an analysis released today by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. The average temperature for 2012 was 55.3°F, 3.2°F above the 20th century average, and 1.0°F above 1998, the previous warmest year.
Soot is defined as the particulate matter released by the burning of fossil fuels, mainly coal. It is often a black substance that is deemed harmful because the dark particles cause warming by absorbing heat in the air. On a grand scale, black carbon also quickens the melting of glaciers. It is now listed as the number two human contributor to climate change.
http://theenergycollective.com/ecskris/173451/soot-pollution-climate-c
The Federal Government has yet to approve a specific climate policy. Since the U.S. Senate rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol no Administration has formally proposed a climate policy to Congress. The Federal Government has, however, developed many non-climate energy regulations that have significantly reduced U.S. carbon emissions over past 30 years. And, since the Supreme Court empowered the EPA to control carbon emissions, the U.S. is being subjected to miscellaneous carbon reduction regulations without well defined climate policy objectives. Why does the U.S. still lack an effective climate policy today?
http://theenergycollective.com/jemillerep/165566/draft-posting-progres
This year brought staggering weather extremes, record loss of Arctic ice and a growing body of scientific analysis linking the two. Those extremes, plus Superstorm Sandy, raised public concern about the immediate threat posed by climate change, providing a palpable debunking of the (mistaken) belief that climate change will impact only future generations or people in faraway lands.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/163486/climate-story-year-ex
One seemingly minor and unreported component of the recent UN climate talks in Doha highlights the drawbacks of old-school scientific assessments and the need to modernize the IPCC process.
http://theenergycollective.com/simondonner/160221/changing-ipcc-better
In the first serious indication Obama will focus on climate change in his second term, media outlets report the President will nominate Senator John Kerry (D-MA) to be Secretary of State.
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/158956/obama-name-climate-ha
As Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast last week, meteorologists and climate scientists were repeatedly asked to explain what role climate change played in amplifying the storm. Overall, we know that climate change has stacked the deck so that this kind of event happens more frequently. That answer, however, prompts a deeper, more unsettling question that many want to know: is climate change worsening some recent extreme weather events like super storm Sandy?
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/139771/yes-climate-change-contributed-superstorm-sandy
As Hurricane Sandy battered the East Coast last week, meteorologists and climate scientists were repeatedly asked to explain what role climate change played in amplifying the storm. Overall, we know that climate change has stacked the deck so that this kind of event happens more frequently. That answer, however, prompts a deeper, more unsettling question that many want to know: is climate change worsening some recent extreme weather events like super storm Sandy?
http://theenergycollective.com/josephromm/139771/yes-climate-change-contributed-superstorm-sandy
