What we've learned in 2008 : article : Nature Reports Clima. Science/Nature | Next decade 'may see no warming. The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted. A new computer model developed by German researchers, reported in the journal Nature, suggests the cooling will counter greenhouse warming. However, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020, they say. Other climate scientists have welcomed the research, saying it may help societies plan better for the future.
The key to the new prediction is the natural cycle of ocean temperatures called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), which is closely related to the warm currents that bring heat from the tropics to the shores of Europe. The cause of the oscillation is not well understood, but the cycle appears to come round about every 60 to 70 years. It may partly explain why temperatures rose in the early years of the last century before beginning to cool in the 1940s. Deep patterns 'No distraction' Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk. Science/Nature | Hints of methane's renewed rise. Levels of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere seem to be rising having remained stable for nearly 10 years.
Data from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US suggest concentrations rose by about 0.5% between 2006 and 2007. The rise could reflect melting of permafrost, increased industrialisation in Asia or drying of tropical wetlands. The rise in carbon dioxide levels was significantly higher than the average annual increase for the last 30 years. Noaa figures show CO2 concentrations rising by 2.4 parts per million (ppm) from 2006 to 2007. By comparison, the average annual increase between 1979 and 2007 was 1.65ppm. Concentrations now stand at 384 ppm, compared to about 280 ppm before the era of human industrialisation began. Upwards curve? The rise in CO2 is not exceptional compared with the previous few years, but does add more evidence that concentrations are rising faster than they were a decade or so ago.
Warming trend. New High-Res Map of U.S. Per-Capita CO2 Emissions | Wired Scienc. Purdue scientists have released a high-resolution map of American per-capita carbon dioxide emissions to Wired.com. It shows the amount of carbon dioxide produced in 100 square kilometer regions of the United States divided by the number of residents in that area. You can download the full eight megabyte ultra-high-resolution file here. The work provides unprecedented resolution into U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. After all, a single large city like Houston can sprawl over 1,500 square kilometers.
It comes as President Bush, in a major policy reversal, prepares to announce a new plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that critics say is not likely to go far enough in curbing greenhouse gases. The new map follows a visualization released last week, which plotted total carbon emissions in 100 square kilometer chunks, and which some complained looked too much like a population density map. For comparison’s sake, you can find the original Vulcan Project map below.
Science/Nature | 'No Sun link' to climate c. Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the Sun's activity. The research contradicts a favoured theory of climate "sceptics", that changes in cosmic rays coming to Earth determine cloudiness and temperature.
The idea is that variations in solar activity affect cosmic ray intensity. But UK scientists found there has been no significant link between cosmic rays and cloudiness in the last 20 years. Presenting their findings in the Institute of Physics journal, Environmental Research Letters, the University of Lancaster team explain that they used three different ways to search for a correlation, and found virtually none. This is the latest piece of evidence which at the very least puts the cosmic ray theory, developed by Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark at the Danish National Space Center (DNSC), under very heavy pressure. Wrong path The planet warms up when the Sun's output is strong. Limited effect. Science/Nature | Antarctic shelf 'hangs by threa. A chunk of ice the size of the Isle of Man has started to break away from Antarctica in what scientists say is further evidence of a warming climate.
Satellite images suggest that part of the ice shelf is disintegrating, and will soon crumble away. The Wilkins Ice Shelf has been stable for most of the last century, but began retreating in the 1990s. Six ice shelves in the same part of the continent have already been lost, says the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). Professor David Vaughan of BAS said: "Wilkins is the largest ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula yet to be threatened.
"I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread - we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be. " 'Like an explosion' BAS researchers were alerted to the break-up by daily monitoring of satellite images. Jim Elliott, who was on board the plane, said he had never seen anything like it before. 'Unprecedented' warming. Global warming twice as lethal as previously assumed - earth - 2. Cookies on the New Scientist website close Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively. To continue using our website and consent to the use of cookies, click away from this box or click 'Close' Find out about our cookies and how to change them Log in Your login is case sensitive I have forgotten my password close My New Scientist Look for Science Jobs Will an anti-viral drug put paid to measles?
Criminal gang connections mapped via phone metadata No more primal soup: Creating life without water Slow-motion tremors make megaquake more likely When the internet dies, meet the meshnet that survives NEWS: 18:00 19 April 2014 If a crisis throws everyone offline, getting reconnected can be tougher than it looks, finds Hal Hodson Shakespeare: The godfather of modern medicine FEATURE: 16:00 19 April 2014 Red lettuce and dinosaur germs head to space station TODAY: 23:03 18 April 2014 Shakespeare: Did radical astronomy inspire Hamlet?
New CO2 Capturing Material Could Make Plants Cleaner | Wired Sci. Scientists claim to have discovered a new compound that will capture damaging carbon dioxide from power plants using a technique commonly used to by the pharmaceutical industry to find new drugs. The sponge-like material, called ZIF-69, promises to hold 60 times its volume in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas scientists say is primarily responsible for climate change. The compound, along with twenty-four others like it, were discovered using so-called high-throughput screening, a massively parallel technique for testing chemicals. The new molecule could be used to capture the carbon dioxide generated by power plants when they burn coal, gas, or biomass. "We’re altering the environment irreversibly and something needs to be done or we might not have time to do anything about it," said Omar Yaghi, a professor of chemistry at UCLA, lead author of the paper.
Capturing carbon dioxide requires that you can sort that CO2 molecule from other particles. Science/Nature | 'Tropics expand' as world. Climate change is causing the tropics to widen, with possible impacts on the global food supply, research suggests. Scientists examined five different measures of the width of the tropical belt, and found it expanded by between 2 and 4.8 degrees latitude since 1979. Other researchers meanwhile said climatic change could increase the number of thunderstorms in the US.
The findings emerged as delegates met in Bali for UN climate talks focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The capacity of poorer countries - many of them in the tropics - to respond and adapt to impacts of climate change will be another major theme of the talks. Widening belts The new analysis of tropical expansion comes from a team of US scientists who reviewed five separate strands of evidence, all gathered from satellite data. On these measures, the tropics have expanded since the era of reliable satellite observation began in 1979. Thunder rolls. Science/Nature | Climate flooding risk 'misjudge. Climate change may carry a higher risk of flooding than was previously thought, the journal Nature reports.
Researchers say efforts to calculate flooding risk from climate change do not take into account the effect carbon dioxide (CO2) has on vegetation. Higher atmospheric levels of this greenhouse gas reduce the ability of plants to suck water out of the ground and "breathe" out the excess. Plants expel excess water through tiny pores, or stomata, in their leaves. Their reduced ability to release water back into the atmosphere will result in the ground becoming saturated. Areas with higher predicted rainfall have a greater risk of flooding. The findings suggest computer models of future climate change may need to be revised in order to plan for coming decades. Soil saturation Plants perform two functions that are of key importance in climate change. They absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to oxygen as a by-product of their energy generation process. From Peak Oil To Dark Age? By Eugene Linden With global oil production virtually stalled in recent years, controversial predictions that the world is fast approaching maximum petroleum output are looking a bit less controversial.
At first blush, those concerned about global warming should be delighted. After all, what better way to prod the move toward carbon-free, climate-friendly alternative energy? But climate change activists have nothing to cheer about. The U.S. is completely unprepared for peak oil, as it's called, and the wrenching adjustments it would entail could easily accelerate global warming as nations turn to coal (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/19/07, "Rx for Earth: Sooner Not Later").
Moreover, regardless of the implications for climate change, peak oil represents a mortal threat to the U.S. economy. Peak oil refers to the point at which world oil production plateaus before beginning to decline as depletion of the world's remaining reserves offsets ever-increased drilling. What would that mean? Rolling Stone : The Secret Campaign of President Bush's Adm.
G8 leaders agree to climate deal. Leaders of the G8 nations have agreed to seek "substantial" cuts in emissions in an effort to tackle climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the G8 would negotiate within a UN framework to seek a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009. No mandatory target was set for the cuts, but Mrs Merkel's preference for a 50% emissions cut by the year 2050 was included in the agreed statement. Developing nations should also cut emissions, the leaders agreed. Elsewhere at the summit, US President George W Bush met Russian President Vladimir Putin against a backdrop of disagreements over US plans for missile defence. Mr Bush said the pair had had a "constructive" meeting, in which Mr Putin suggested using a radar station in Azerbaijan instead of facilities elsewhere in Europe.
Turning the tide Announcing the climate change deal, Mrs Merkel described it as a "significant and important step forward". Blair optimistic. Carbon offset market raises questions - Going Green - MSNBC.com. When Al Gore faced attacks earlier this year over how much energy is used to power his 10,000-square foot home, the vice president-turned-global warming guru offered an increasingly common defense. Gore may indulge in some of life’s luxuries, but a spokeswoman told The Associated Press that Gore still maintains a “carbon-neutral” lifestyle.
That’s thanks to a mixture of conservation and carbon offsets — a voluntary system in which people pay money toward renewable energy projects as a way to counterbalance their use of more traditional, and polluting, energy sources. The desire to make amends for everything from a trip to the Oscars to a morning commute has spawned a plethora of for-profit and nonprofit carbon offset providers, whose offerings run the gamut in terms of how much they cost and what they say they will accomplish. But the growing retail market, which is largely unregulated, also is raising questions among environmentalists who say not all offsets are created equal. Climate change: A guide for the perplexed - earth - 16 May 2007. Cookies on the New Scientist website close Our website uses cookies, which are small text files that are widely used in order to make websites work more effectively. To continue using our website and consent to the use of cookies, click away from this box or click 'Close' Find out about our cookies and how to change them Log in Your login is case sensitive I have forgotten my password close My New Scientist Look for Science Jobs Will an anti-viral drug put paid to measles?
Criminal gang connections mapped via phone metadata No more primal soup: Creating life without water Slow-motion tremors make megaquake more likely Red lettuce and dinosaur germs head to space station TODAY: 23:03 18 April 2014 SpaceX has launched its third cargo mission to the ISS, carrying gear that includes robot legs, a collapsible garden and a microbes from a dino fossil Shakespeare: Did radical astronomy inspire Hamlet?
FEATURE: 18:00 18 April 2014 The LADEE killers: NASA has crashed probe into moon TODAY: 17:39 18 April 2014. Top News- Scientists Offer Frightening Forecast - AOL News. Crooks and Liars » TDS: Jason Jones Refutes “An Inconvenient Tru. Many major rivers are in danger of dying: WWF. Yahoo is part of the Yahoo family of brands The sites and apps that we own and operate, including Yahoo, AOL, Engadget, In The Know and Makers.Yahoo family of brands. When you use our sites and apps, we use Cookies Cookies (including similar technologies such as web storage) allow the operators of websites and apps to store and read information from your device.
Learn more in our cookie policy.cookies to: provide our sites and apps to you authenticate users, apply security measures, and prevent spam and abuse, and MeasurementWe count the number of visitors to our pages, the type of device they use (iOS or Android), the browser they use and the duration of their visit to our websites and apps. This data is collected in aggregate and is not tied to specific users.measure your use of our sites and apps If you do not want us and our partners to use cookies and personal data for these additional purposes, click 'Reject all'. Special Reports | Caution urged on climate 'risk. Both scientists believe that man's activities are causing global warming Two leading UK climate researchers say some of their peers are "overplaying" the global warming message and risk confusing the public about the threat.
Professors Paul Hardaker and Chris Collier, both Royal Meteorological Society figures, are voicing their concern at a conference in Oxford. They say some researchers make claims about possible future impacts that cannot be justified by the science. The pair believe this damages the credibility of all climate scientists. Both men hold the mainstream view on climate change - that human activity is the cause. But they think catastrophism and the "Hollywoodisation" of weather and climate only work to create confusion in the public mind.
They argue for a more sober and reasoned explanation of the uncertainties about possible future changes in the Earth's climate. "These events are early warning signs of even more devastating damage to come, some of which will be irreversible. "