Climate Code Sundays
I've decided to start a regular contribution to our community blog, in that because the CC airs every Sunday, baring other major weather-related developments and/or news from TWC, I'll try to post a couple AGW relevant stories and links on Sundays.
Nicholas Read, CanWest News Service; Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, February 22, 2007
VANCOUVER - Unless we halt completely the emission of carbon dioxide from the world's energy systems, we risk an oceanic catastrophe worse than the one associated with the disappearance of the dinosaurs...
...Ken Caldeira, who teaches out of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California, says the level of acidification caused by dumping hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the world's oceans is so great it could cause a major disruption on par with, or worse than, the sudden dumping of sulphuric acid into the oceans 65 million years ago when an asteroid slammed into the Earth's surface.
When that happened, he said, it took 500,000 years for plankton to reappear, two million years for corals to redevelop, and 10 million years for the current level of oceanic biodiversity to re-emerge.
*************************
Senator's new views on climate surprise foes
By BILL ADAIR - Tampabay.com
Published February 24, 2007
...For years, the Alaska Republican has argued with environmentalists. They fought him when he tried to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and they rolled their eyes when he raised doubts that global warming was caused by humans.
So they were shocked last month when the oil-state senator introduced a bill that would require cars to be more fuel efficient, a move he said would reduce greenhouse gases. It was a dramatic turnaround on the order of Richard Nixon visiting China...
Alaska, a state known for its polar bears and glaciers, is melting. It is the front line for global warming, a place where the dramatic effects can be seen every day.
The state's permafrost is shrinking, exposing deposits of methane that, once in the atmosphere, will speed more warming. The rise in sea level from melting glaciers has eroded the coastline and threatened villages. The erosion has been so severe that a fuel storage tank for the village of Kivalina nearly fell into the ocean.
Those descriptions come not from the people Stevens describes as "extreme environmentalists," but from (Sen.) Stevens himself...
*************************
How global warming goes against the grain
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate...
*************************
February 23, 2007
CLIMATE REPORTING IN PHYSICS WORLD
RealClimate.org
Climate science from climate scientists
The February 2007 issue of PhysicsWorld contains several articles relevant to climate research, with a main feature article on climate modelling written by Adam Scaife, Chris Folland, and John Mitchell, and a profile on Richard Lindzen as well as an article on geoengineering in the 'News & Analyses' section. The magazine also contains an article ('Living in the greenhouse') under 'Lateral Thoughts' that brings up a bunch of tentative analogies to a wide range of topics completely unrelated to the greenhouse effect in a technical sense, and an editorial comment 'Hot topic', arguing that it would be wrong of PhysicsWorld to ignore those outside the mainstream. To be more precise, the editorial comment devotes a few lines justifying the profile on Lindzen and the report on geoengineering, with a reference to a Feynman quote: "There is no harm in doubt and scepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made". Wise words! Nevertheless, I cannot resist making some reflections.
Nicholas Read, CanWest News Service; Vancouver Sun Published: Thursday, February 22, 2007
VANCOUVER - Unless we halt completely the emission of carbon dioxide from the world's energy systems, we risk an oceanic catastrophe worse than the one associated with the disappearance of the dinosaurs...
...Ken Caldeira, who teaches out of the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California, says the level of acidification caused by dumping hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the world's oceans is so great it could cause a major disruption on par with, or worse than, the sudden dumping of sulphuric acid into the oceans 65 million years ago when an asteroid slammed into the Earth's surface.
When that happened, he said, it took 500,000 years for plankton to reappear, two million years for corals to redevelop, and 10 million years for the current level of oceanic biodiversity to re-emerge.
*************************
Senator's new views on climate surprise foes
By BILL ADAIR - Tampabay.com
Published February 24, 2007
...For years, the Alaska Republican has argued with environmentalists. They fought him when he tried to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and they rolled their eyes when he raised doubts that global warming was caused by humans.
So they were shocked last month when the oil-state senator introduced a bill that would require cars to be more fuel efficient, a move he said would reduce greenhouse gases. It was a dramatic turnaround on the order of Richard Nixon visiting China...
Alaska, a state known for its polar bears and glaciers, is melting. It is the front line for global warming, a place where the dramatic effects can be seen every day.
The state's permafrost is shrinking, exposing deposits of methane that, once in the atmosphere, will speed more warming. The rise in sea level from melting glaciers has eroded the coastline and threatened villages. The erosion has been so severe that a fuel storage tank for the village of Kivalina nearly fell into the ocean.
Those descriptions come not from the people Stevens describes as "extreme environmentalists," but from (Sen.) Stevens himself...
*************************
How global warming goes against the grain
MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT From Saturday's Globe and Mail
The place where most of the world's people could first begin to feel the consequences of global warming may come as a surprise: in the stomach, via the supper plate...
*************************
February 23, 2007
CLIMATE REPORTING IN PHYSICS WORLD
RealClimate.org
Climate science from climate scientists
The February 2007 issue of PhysicsWorld contains several articles relevant to climate research, with a main feature article on climate modelling written by Adam Scaife, Chris Folland, and John Mitchell, and a profile on Richard Lindzen as well as an article on geoengineering in the 'News & Analyses' section. The magazine also contains an article ('Living in the greenhouse') under 'Lateral Thoughts' that brings up a bunch of tentative analogies to a wide range of topics completely unrelated to the greenhouse effect in a technical sense, and an editorial comment 'Hot topic', arguing that it would be wrong of PhysicsWorld to ignore those outside the mainstream. To be more precise, the editorial comment devotes a few lines justifying the profile on Lindzen and the report on geoengineering, with a reference to a Feynman quote: "There is no harm in doubt and scepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made". Wise words! Nevertheless, I cannot resist making some reflections.