Did Nasa fund 'civilisation collapse' study, or not? | Nafeez Ahmed | Environment. Environmental journalism's watchdog strikes Blogger Keith Kloor, who writes for Discover magazine, claims that my article on a Nasa-funded study modelling civilisational collapse scenarios is so inaccurate that it constitutes "a sad commentary on journalism today. " The actual study, he claims, had no connection to Nasa whatsoever. Rather, I "disingenously hyped" the paper "as being 'Nasa-sponsored'", when in fact, it simply wasn't. Thus, the story which I "thought of as a big scoop", says Kloor, "wouldn't pass Journalism 101.
" Kloor then goes on to take, essentially, the entire "herd-like media coverage" of the story to task for repeating the story in a "similarly sensationalist" fashion. Sadly, Kloor's misguided response is consistent with his axiomatic rejection of what he calls 'misguided eco-doomers' (which apparently includes anyone who says that business-as-usual could have disastrous consequences for the environment). The Nasa deception that wasn't Clear-cut? But this is incorrect. Climate Change Worse Than We Thought, Likely To Be 'Catastrophic Rather Than Simply Dangerous'
Climate change may be far worse than scientists thought, causing global temperatures to rise by at least 4 degrees Celsius by 2100, or about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal Nature, takes a fresh look at clouds' effect on the planet, according to a report by The Guardian. The research found that as the planet heats, fewer sunlight-reflecting clouds form, causing temperatures to rise further in an upward spiral. That number is double what many governments agree is the threshold for dangerous warming. Aside from dramatic environmental shifts like melting sea ice, many of the ills of the modern world -- starvation, poverty, war and disease -- are likely to get worse as the planet warms. "4C would likely be catastrophic rather than simply dangerous," lead researcher Steven Sherwood told the Guardian.
"If this isn't an alarm bell, then I don't know what one is. KaZeo - External. 200 Years Worth of Temperature Data Compiled in One Alarming Video. Berkeley Earth/Video screen capture Last week, we reported on the results of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) study, and they were, well, convincing. Not only did researchers confirm the accuracy of historical temperature records across the globe, it reinforced its anthropogenic origin. And, to further highlight their findings, BEST researchers compiled thousands of data sets on temperature anomalies over the course of two centuries into one alarming video of a warming world.
The video above visualizes surface temperature records dating back to 1800, combining around 1.6 billion temperature reports from 15 preexisting data archives. According to BEST, one of the main objectives of unifying historical data was to "resolve current criticism of the former temperature analyses, and to prepare an open record that will allow rapid response to further criticism or suggestions.
" Heat Wave At The North Pole Speeds Up The Big Melt. From NSIDC/NOAA There was update from the National Snow and Ice Data Center this week regarding the summer melt of Arctic Ocean sea-ice. It’s beginning to look as if a new record low in ice extent is possible by the time the melting ends in early September, passing the all time low set in 2007. Here is the update from NSIDC: Overview of conditionsAs of July 17, 2011, Arctic sea ice extent was 7.56 million square kilometers (2.92 million square miles), 2.24 million square kilometers (865,000 square miles) below the 1979 to 2000 average.
Sea ice is particularly low in the Barents, Kara, and Laptev Seas (the far northern Atlantic region), Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay. Conditions in context Arctic sea ice extent declined rapidly through the first two weeks of July, at a rate averaging nearly 120,000 square kilometers (46,000 square miles) per day. September sea ice forecasts sent to ARCUS. From JAXA- click for larger image. PIOMAS model from the Polar Science Center. An Inconvenient Truth - Trailer. Climate change news, comment and analysis | Environment. Bill McKibben Avoids the Fetal Position.
[Excerpt] When we talk about global warming, much of the debate centers on separating facts from fluff, and environmental activist and Mother Jones contributor Bill McKibben wants to set the record straight. The Global Warming Reader, a book edited by McKibben and out this month from OR Books, pulls together seminal texts of the climate change debate with the goal of creating a complete picture of what we know about global warming.
Selections range from a 19th-century treatise to images from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and include a few unexpected gems like Senate floor statements from climate change denier James Inhofe (R-Okla.). I spoke to McKibben about his history with climate change literature, his ongoing battle against ExxonMobil, and, in the face of dismal environmental realities, how he avoids the temptation to curl up in a little ball on the floor. Mother Jones: Why'd you put this book together? BM: I do think that there are holes. Read full article. Nicholas Stern: 'I got it wrong on climate change – it's far, far worse' | Environment | The Observer. Lord Stern, author of the government-commissioned review on climate change that became the reference work for politicians and green campaigners, now says he underestimated the risks, and should have been more "blunt" about the threat posed to the economy by rising temperatures.
In an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Stern, who is now a crossbench peer, said: "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. " The Stern review, published in 2006, pointed to a 75% chance that global temperatures would rise by between two and three degrees above the long-term average; he now believes we are "on track for something like four ".
Had he known the way the situation would evolve, he says, "I think I would have been a bit more blunt. Is Humanity Pushing Earth Past a Tipping Point? | Wired Science. Could human activity push Earth’s biological systems to a planet-wide tipping point, causing changes as radical as the Ice Age’s end — but with less pleasant results, and with billions of people along for a bumpy ride?
It’s by no means a settled scientific proposition, but many researchers say it’s worth considering — and not just as an apocalyptic warning or far-fetched speculation, but as a legitimate question raised by emerging science. “There are some biological realities we can’t ignore,” said paleoecologist Anthony Barnosky of the University of California, Berkeley.
“What I’d like to avoid is getting caught by surprise.” In “Approaching a state shift in Earth’s biosphere,” published June 6 in Nature, Barnosky and 21 co-authors cite 100 papers in summarizing what’s known about environmental tipping points. Deforestation in the Amazon jungle, which some scientists say could become a savannah. Image: NASA “We have quite good evidence for the Earth having tipping elements.