Archives of Past Articles for
Chapter 6
2008 March 31. US
West Warming Faster Than Rest
Of World - Study.
Planet Ark; Reuters. Excerpt:
LOS ANGELES - The US West is heating
up at nearly twice the rate of
the rest of the world and is likely
to face more drought conditions
in many of its fast-growing cities....
By analysing federal government
temperature data, the Natural
Resources Defence Council concluded
that the average temperature in
the 11-state Western region from
2003-07 was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit
(0.94 degrees Celsius) higher than
the historical average of the 20th
century. The global average increase
for the same period was 1.0 degrees
Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius).
In the Colorado River Basin, which
supplies water to big and fast-growing
cities like Los Angeles, San Diego,
Las Vegas and Denver, the average
temperature rose 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit
(1.21 degrees Celsius), the US
group said.
Most of the river's water comes
from melting snow in the mountains,
and climate scientists predict
hotter temperatures will reduce
the snowpack and increase evaporation,
the NRDC said in a statement. "Global
warming is hitting the West hard," said
Theo Spencer of the NRDC. "It
is already taking an economic toll
on the region's tourism, recreation,
skiing, hunting and fishing activities."....
June 2007. State
of the Climate in 2006. The
American Meteorological Society
Journals Online (http://ams.allenpress.com/)
just sent out a report on the 'State
of the Climate in 2006'. There's
the Executive
Summary (pdf:
1MB) and the full
report (pdf: 36 MB) . Fascinating
scientific report on meteorological
data. Lots of excellent graphics!
17 April 2007. FEWER
AEROSOLS MAY STEP UP GLOBAL WARMING.
Program #5176 of the Earth & Sky
Radio Series with hosts DEBORAH
BYRD and JOEL BLOCK interviewing
Michael Mishchenko at the Goddard
Institute of Space Studies in
New York. Excerpt:
Scientists believe they've seen
a thinning of the aerosols found
in Earth's atmosphere. That's
important because aerosols -
which come from industrial pollution
as well as natural causes - help
shield us from the effects of
global warming. Some refer to
them as a global "sunscreen." Aerosols
cool Earth by reflecting sunlight.
So, fewer aerosols mean more warming.
[listener] Gene Renkin: We know
that industrial pollution contributes
to man-made global warming by increasing
atmospheric carbon dioxide. Reducing
pollution lowers carbon dioxide
production and slows down global
warming. If at the same time, reducing
industrial pollution reduces atmospheric
aerosols and increases global warming,
then what matters is the relative
effect of these opposite influences
on global warming Nothing in this
article addresses that aspect of
the situation. Please follow up
on this. It is important, because
as reported, your article might
be cited support the ridiculous
conclusion that increasing industrial
atmospheric emissions will lessen
global warming. All direct evidence
is to the contrary....
10 April 2007. There
Is Climate Change Censorship
- and It's the Deniers Who Dish
It Out. By George
Monbiot. The Guardian UK. Excerpt:
Global warming scientists are under
intense pressure to water down
findings, and are then accused
of silencing their critics. The
drafting of reports by the world's
pre-eminent group of climate scientists
is an odd process. For months scientists
contributing to the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change tussle
over the evidence. Nothing gets
published unless it achieves consensus.
This means that the panel's reports
are conservative - even timid.
It also means that they are as
trustworthy as a scientific document
can be. Then, when all is settled
among the scientists, the politicians
sweep in and seek to excise from
the summaries anything that threatens
their interests. ...The Union of
Concerned Scientists found that
58% of the 279 climate scientists
working at federal agencies in
the US who responded to its survey
reported that they had experienced
one of the following constraints:
1. Pressure to eliminate the words "climate
change", "global warming",
or other similar terms from their
communications;
2. Editing of scientific reports
by their superiors that "changed
the meaning of scientific findings";
3. Statements by officials at their
agencies that misrepresented their
findings;
4. The disappearance or unusual
delay of websites, reports, or
other science-based materials relating
to climate;
5. New or unusual administrative
requirements that impair climate-related
work;
6. Situations in which scientists
have actively objected to, resigned
from, or removed themselves from
a project because of pressure to
change scientific findings. They
reported 435 incidents of political
interference over the past five
years. 2003, the White House gutted
the climate-change section of a
report by the Environmental Protection
Agency. It deleted references to
studies showing that global warming
is caused by manmade emissions.
It added a reference to a study,
partly funded by the American Petroleum
Institute, that suggested that
temperatures are not rising. Eventually
the agency decided to drop the
section altogether.
October 2006. Climate
Change in the U.S. Northeast.
Excerpt: Last week, a team of
independent
scientists and researchers, in
collaboration with
the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS), released a new report
detailing how global warming
is poised to substantially change
the climate in the Northeast,
including rising temperatures,
fewer snow covered days, increased
sea level, and more extreme weather
events-the study. Dr. Cameron
Wake,Research Associate Professor,
University of New Hampshire's
Climate Change Research Center
said "The
very notion of the Northeast as
we know it is at stake. The near-term
emissions choices we make in the
Northeast and throughout the world
will help determine the climate
and quality of life our children
and grandchildren experience." The
severity of climate change in the
region will be greatly affected
by the choices that citizens, governments,
and businesses make today. Using
new state-of-the-art research on
recent and projected changes in
the Northeast's regional climate,
the study finds that without strong
leadership and action, by late-century:
Northeast winters could warm by
eight to 12 degrees Fahrenheit
and summers by six to nearly 14
degrees.
The length of the region's winter
snow season could be cut in half.
The frequency of short-term droughts
could increase significantly.
Sea-level could rise from eight
inches to as much three feet.
Many Northeast cities can expect
about 25 days per year over 100
degrees. (Currently, Northeast
cities experience this type of
heat only once or twice a year.)....
14 September 2006. NASA Scientists
See New Signs of Global Warming.
By ANDREW C. REVKIN. Excerpt:
Scientists have long suspected
that the recent melting of Arctic
Ocean ice in the summer might be
a result of heat-trapping gases
building up in the atmosphere.
But yesterday NASA scientists reported
that higher temperatures and a
retreat of the sea ice over the
last two winters offered new evidence
that the gases were influencing
the region's climate. While the
summer melting could be a result
of a number of phenomena like the
flow of warm water, the scientists
said, the reduction of winter ice
two seasons in a row is harder
to explain without invoking the
heat-trapping effects of gases
like carbon dioxide. ...In the
past two winters, the peak of sea
ice growth in the Arctic has been
6 percent below the average peak
since the satellite observations
began, Dr. [Josefino] Comiso said.
His findings are to be published
this month in the journal Geophysical
Research Letters....
8 March 2006. NASA RELEASE: 06-089. NASA
Survey Confirms Climate Warming
Impact on Polar Ice Sheets. In
the most comprehensive survey ever
undertaken of the massive ice sheets
covering both Greenland and Antarctica,
NASA scientists confirm climate
warming is changing how much water
remains locked in Earth's largest
storehouses of ice and snow. "If
the trends we're seeing continue
and climate warming continues
as predicted, the polar ice sheets
could change dramatically,"
said survey lead author Jay Zwally
of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. "The
Greenland ice sheet could be facing
an irreversible decline by the
end of the century."
2 March 2006. NASA RELEASE: 06-085. NASA
Mission Detects Significant
Antarctic Ice Mass Loss.
Scientists
were able to conduct the first-ever
gravity survey of the entire Antarctic
ice sheet using data from the
joint NASA/German Aerospace Center
Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment
(GRACE). This comprehensive study
found the ice sheet's mass has
decreased significantly from 2002
to 2005. ...The estimated mass
loss was enough to raise global
sea level about 1.2 millimeters
(0.05 inches) during the survey
period; about 13 percent of the
overall observed sea level rise
for the same period. The researchers
found Antarctica's ice sheet decreased
by 152 (plus or minus 80) cubic
kilometers of ice annually between
April 2002 and August 2005.
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