Climate Points

A New World Water Power?

2008-06-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

At least that's what the University of Waterloo thinks...http://www.bulletin.uwaterloo.ca/2008/may/30fr.htmlUW could lead the world in water Waterloo “may be the best positioned” university in North America, perhaps in the

Palaeozoic CO2 and Temperature: coupled again?

2007-09-12T14:07:00.000-07:00

Though there are many other influences on climate such as contintentalconfiguration that can change over the period of hundreds of millionsof years, GHGs are still considered an primary driver of averagesurface temperature. Which is why the publication by Veizer et al in2000 (ref 4 in abstract below) of a sea surface reconstruction oftemperatures from the Palaeozoic era had led to some confusion.

Land use change and global warming

2007-09-11T04:21:00.000-07:00

An interesting tidbit that showed up over at Nature's "Nature Reports: Climate Change" in a story on what might be the discovery of the missing carbon sink.Albedo effectOther scientists have also recently come to the conclusion that northern forests, although critically important in maintaining biodiversity, might be less important in slowing climate change than tropical forests. Govindasamy Bala

New Model: Some near term offset of anthropogenic warming

2007-08-10T12:22:00.001-07:00

A new model, published in Science, that includes more information about the internal variability of the Earth system (e.g. El Ninos, etc.) predicts some potential for ameliorating anthropogenic warming in the next tens years (yet about 50% of the years after 2009 are still predicted to be warmer than 1998 (the warmest so far)).___Science 10 August 2007:Vol. 317. no. 5839, pp. 796 - 799DOI:

Science Mag: Editorial - Climate: Game Over

2007-07-27T14:21:00.001-07:00

Science Magazine's Donald Kennedy published an editorial today declaring the public debate over anthropogenic climate change as being over (the scientific debate has been (mostly) done for some time). Why you might ask? Well here are his words:With respect to climate change, we have abruptly passed the tipping point in what until recently has been a tense political controversy. Why? Industry

Polar work will drive you mad!

2007-07-25T16:46:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting article from Reuters about "Polar Madness" or more to the point, how some people when they go to work at the poles seem to go wacko. Now this is not meant as a slight to any one person or group of people since this could happen to anyone. It is, to me mind, a result of our ego-centric internalized conception of self (some might call that redundant) coupled with group

Compromise Brewing @ NOAA?

2007-07-25T12:35:00.001-07:00

Nature has an interesting editorial this week about the goings on at NOAA. Entitled Storm brewing the editorial delves into the problems that occurred recently when the new head of the National Hurricane Center in Florida criticized NOAA administration for spending millions of dollars on an anniversary celebration while at the same time the current generation of satellites that track storms as

Climate Change: Smoke & Mirrors?

2007-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

Smoke & Mirrors New studies show that aerosol particles have a far greater impact on global climate than was originally believed. This is due to how aerosols change the pattern of heating and cooling regionally. Aerosols impact on surface heating depends largely on the type of aerosol. Some are very effective reflectors leading to localized cooling. These type of aerosols were the more

Twenthith century sea level change

2007-01-08T16:46:00.001-08:00

Here is an example of a really nice abstract. I can just copy and paste it because most everyone can understand it. GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L01602, doi:10.1029/2006GL028492, 2007 On the decadal rates of sea level change during the twentieth centuryAbstract Nine long and nearly continuous

Milankovitch is spot-on

2007-01-05T05:33:00.001-08:00

This looks like a very interesting article. From reading the abstract the author makes a logical argument that, with respect to Milankovitch forcing (The change in incoming solar radiation due to changes in how the Earth is situated relative to the sun), one should consider ice volume dynamics (changes in ice volume) rather than ice volume total. In doing so the Milankovitch forcing is revealed

Good news about global warming

2007-01-04T04:57:00.001-08:00

Well sort of. An interesting finding written up in the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). Using climate models the investigators looked at what the impact of climate change would be on particulate matter and tropospheric (bad) ozone. Seems that due to the increase in water vapor associated with climate change both these pollutants decrease. Particulate matter due to rain out and ozone due to

World Ocean Heat Content

2006-12-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

The mystery of the world ocean heat content(1,2) continues. We heard this year that the world oceans had cooled between 2003 and 2005. Recently we are getting reports out of AGU fall meeting that the latest data set shows the world oceans warming since 2004 (though statistically not confirmed). If it pans out the we are still left with a big question as to what is going on.From:http://

Welcome to Climate Points

2006-12-24T08:10:00.000-08:00

This will be a science blog about climate, climate change, and the role that humans might play in climate change. We will research and discuss articles in the literature and try to put research into perspective using non-jargony words. I expect you the readers to keep us honest to that promise by pointing out confusing language and concepts.