CVM2-Low.pdf. Colorado and a Warming Planet. RTEmagicP_Byrd_footprint_for_web_txdam34205_4dddb8.jpg (Image JPEG, 400x307 pixels) Sea-level rise from polar ice melt finally quantified. 29 November 2012Last updated at 15:22 ET By David Shukman Science editor, BBC News Channels like this one can feed water down through hundreds of metres of ice Melting of polar ice sheets has added 11mm to global sea levels over the past two decades, according to the most definitive assessment so far. More than 20 polar research teams have combined forces to produce estimates of the state of the ice in Greenland and Antarctica in a paper in Science. Until now different measurement means have produced a wide range of estimates with large uncertainties. But sea-level rise is now among the most pressing questions of our time. Polar ice has a tremendous capacity to cause massive rises - with huge potential impacts on coastal cities and communities around the world.
But the remoteness and sheer size of the ice sheets mean accurate measurements are a serious challenge even for satellites which have to distinguish snow from ice, and the rise of the land from the shrinking of the ice. One number. Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed - video | Environment. NASA: Arctic sea ice reaches record low. World's biggest eco-toilet scheme fails | Environment. The large banner at the front gate of what used to be called Daxing Ecological Community has been changed to read "Civilized City". A showroom by the nearby supermarket is locked up and empty while a little further away, near a scenic lake, lies a rubbish dump of dry toilets, piles of blue excrement buckets and recycling containers.
While the evidence of the world's biggest dry toilet experiment has been removed, the stench it created lingers in the memories of residents of the apartment complex in Ordos, Inner Mongolia. After three years of problems, the entire sewerage and wastewater handling system has been replaced and normal flushing toilets installed. The ecological community has lost its most important symbol – its ecological toilets. Bad smells, health problems, maggots Yan Jianping is a lawyer and also chair of the Daxing's residents' committee.
Yan heard of the new apartment complex in 2006. Yan's family just couldn't get used to it. An out-of-control winter. State of ozone hole. An international treaty to protect the ozone layer, agreement to phase out chemicals which attack the Earth’s vital ozone shield, signed nearly 25 years ago prevented an environmental disaster according to latest press release by World Meteorological Organisation (WMO). It banned ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbon gases (CFCs), once present in things like refrigerators and spray cans. It would still take a very long time for the ozone layer to recover. However, the Earth's radiation shield is still under threat. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which was signed 16 September 1987, has prevented the destruction of the ozone layer which protects Earth from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Ozone depletion already caused millions of cases of skin cancer and eye cataracts, as well as the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation on the environment. The south polar vortex is now activated and primed for ozone depletion. Ozone facts. The Hard Rain Project Whole Earth exhibition – in pictures | Environment. Warming turns tundra to forest. Science | Environment 04 Jun 12 In just a few decades shrubs in the Arctic tundra have turned into trees as a result of the warming Arctic climate, creating patches of forest which, if replicated across the tundra, would significantly accelerate global warming. Scientists from Finland and Oxford University investigated an area of around 100,000 km2, known as the northwestern Eurasian tundra, stretching from western Siberia to Finland. Surveys of the vegetation, using data from satellite imaging, fieldwork, and expert observations from indigenous reindeer herders, showed that in 8-15% of the area willow (Salix) and alder (Alnus) plants have grown into trees over 2 metres in height in the last 30-40 years.
Previous models assessing the potential impact of forestation have suggested that the advance of forest into Arctic tundra could increase Arctic warming by an extra 1-2 degrees Celsius by the late 21st Century. A report of the research is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Global Warming According To Scientific Projections By Geert Jan van Oldenborgh & Rein Haarsma. Global Warming According To Scientific Projections By Geert Jan van Oldenborgh & Rein Haarsma 02 April, 2012Realclimate.org 1981 climate projection by Jim Hansen et al shows pretty good match with observations of past 30 years Sometimes it helps to take a step back from the everyday pressures of research (falling ill helps). It was in this way we stumbled across Hansen et al (1981) (pdf).
In 1981 the first author of this post was in his first year at university and the other just entered the KNMI after finishing his masters. Global warming was not yet an issue at the KNMI where the focus was much more on climate variability, which explains why the article of Hansen et al. was unnoticed at that time by the second author. Next they attribute global mean temperature trend 1880-1980 to CO2, volcanic and solar forcing. The first 31 years of this projection are thus relatively well-defined and can now be compared to the observations. References 1.