Anthropogenic Climate Change

As temperatures rise, soil will relinquish less carbon to the atmosphere than predicted: "Here's another reason to pay close attention to microbes: Current climate models probably overestimate the amount of carbon that will be released from soil into the atmosphere as global temperatures rise, according to research from the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The findings are from a new computer model that explores the feedbacks between soil carbon and climate change. It's the first such model to include several physiologically realistic representations of how soil microbes break down organic matter, a process that annually unleashes about ten times as much carbon into the atmosphere as fossil fuel emissions. In contrast, today's models include a simplistic representation of microbial behavior."

Thanks, volcanoes! Earth cooler than expected due to recent eruptions: "Minor volcanic eruptions substantially slowed Earth’s warming between 2000 and 2013, a new study suggests. The small particles, or aerosols, were spewed high into the atmosphere and scattered sunlight back into space, preventing the global average temperature from rising from 0.05°C to 0.12°C. That cooling effect represents between 25% and 50% of the expected temperature rise during that period because of rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, the scientists say, so the finding helps explain the so-called hiatus in global warming over the last 15 years."

Volcanic eruptions slowed Global Warming?

Bullshit

Where is our User's Manual for that damn planet?

Headline: Global warming solved!! Mt. St. Helen scheduled for annual eruption!

Just wait until Yellowstone goes off...

That'll be cool.

...Get it?

...Anyone?

*throws you into the erupting Yellowstone*

edited 22nd Nov '14 3:10:32 PM by Ekuran

Ain't going to happen anywhere soon, I'm afraid. Other volcanoes such as Etna, Vesuvius, Paektusan and others are better candidates.

^^^ i got it

Meanwhile, the passenger boat industry experiences a revival as air traffic becomes prohibitively expensive and dangerous.

I love how all of the three posts above are appropriate responses to my post even though they're so very different.

Also, "Yellowstone won't erupt soon, I'm afraid"... Do we really live in a world where the inevitable explosion of Yellowstone is something we eagerly anticipate?

edited 23rd Nov '14 4:40:40 AM by BestOf

It would certainly be interesting.

Highly undesirable, and likely to completely fuck over a huge number of people in very horrible ways. But nevertheless interesting.

Underwater robot takes stock of Antarctica's sea ice from below: "What’s happening with the fringe of sea ice surrounding Antarctica? Is it growing or shrinking, and why are there strikingly different trends in different regions of the continent? To understand a puzzle that has been confounding scientists in recent years, researchers need to know not only the spatial extent of the ice, but also how thick it is, which is tricky to estimate from satellite data alone or from scant point measurements taken by drilling into ice floes. Now, a team of scientists is offering a third way of collecting that data: from under the ice itself.

The researchers used an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named SeaBED that is armed with upward-looking sonar to map the underside of the sea ice floes. During two different research expeditions, in the mid- to late springs of 2010 and 2012, the AUV—which resembles a 2-meter-long bunk bed with twin hulls stacked on top of one another—traveled back and forth through several different Southern Ocean waters in a lawn mower–like pattern at depths of 20 to 30 meters under the ice to collect a 3D survey of the topography of the sea ice’s underbelly."

Global warming skeptics unmoved by extreme weather: "What will it take to convince skeptics of global warming that the phenomenon is real? Surely, many scientists believe, enough droughts, floods and heat waves will begin to change minds. But a new study throws cold water on that theory."

Better forecasts for sea ice under climate change: "University of Adelaide-led research will help pinpoint the impact of waves on sea ice, which is vulnerable to climate change, particularly in the Arctic where it is rapidly retreating."

Warming world could make it harder for planes to take off: "Air travel is about to become even more frustrating. Warmer global temperatures will make it tougher for planes to take off, tightening restrictions on just how much luggage or how many people can come aboard, a new study suggests. Higher temperatures make air less dense, reducing the lift force on planes’ wings."

January-October 2014 temperatures highest on record: "The global average temperature over land and ocean surfaces for January to October 2014 was the highest on record, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It said October was the hottest since records began in 1880."

Research confirms how global warming links to carbon emissions: "Research has identified, for the first time, how global warming is related to the amount of carbon emitted. A team of researchers has derived the first theoretical equation to demonstrate that global warming is a direct result of the build-up of carbon emissions since the late 1800s when human-made carbon emissions began. The results are in accord with previous data from climate models."

2014 is headed towards being the hottest year on record, with the rather strange oddity of the absence of El Nino.

CO2 warming effects felt just a decade after being emitted: "It takes just 10 years for a single emission of carbon dioxide (CO 2) to have its maximum warming effects on the Earth.

This is according to researchers at the Carnegie Institute for Science who have dispelled a common misconception that the main warming effects from a CO2 emission will not be felt for several decades."

edited 5th Dec '14 12:42:59 PM by rmctagg09

Report claims consumers are uninformed regarding magnitude of livestock contribution to carbon emissions: "Chatham House of the British Royal Institute of Affairs has published a report titled Livestock – Climate Change's Forgotten Sector (Global Public Opinion on Meat and Dairy Consumption) outlining the results of a survey the group commissioned to learn more about the public's perception of the impact that the livestock industry has on carbon emissions and ultimately global warming. Their report suggests that consumers have vastly differing views on the subject based on where they live in the world."

The yin-yang of polar sea ice: "It comes as no surprise, therefore, when researchers announce as they did this past September that Arctic sea ice extent is still below normal, continuing a years-long downward trend, covering less and less of the north polar seas with a frozen crust. On the heels of that announcement, came another, a little more puzzling. While Arctic sea ice was melting, Antarctic sea ice was at an all-time high. In 2014, sea ice surrounding Antarctica covered more of the southern oceans than it has since satellite record began in the late 1970s.

'There is no doubt that climate change is real,' says Walt Meier of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. 'The two poles are just responding in their own unique way to the same global phenomenon.'

He points out that Earth, taken as a whole, is losing sea ice. According to satellite measurements from NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the Arctic has lost an average of 20,800 square miles of sea ice a year since the late 70s. Meanwhile, the Antarctic has gained an average of 7,300 square miles per year—not enough to balance loses at the other end of the planet."

edited 8th Dec '14 10:16:05 AM by rmctagg09

Early warning signals of abrupt climate change: "A new study has found early warning signals of a reorganization of the Atlantic ocean's circulation which could have a profound impact on the global climate system."

So they've isolated potential warning proxies to detect future AMOC collapse. Have these warning proxies actually been tested in the field yet — as in, what is the status of these proxies in real life?

How pace of climate change will challenge ectotherms: "40 years of data has been analyzed to outline climate change challenge for ectotherms (animals who rely on external sources of heat to control body temperature). The research showed that many groups of ectotherms, which make up more than 90 percent of all animals, are able to change their physiological function to cope with an altered environment, but the rapid pace and fluctuations of human-induced climate change present serious challenges."

Temperature anomalies are warming faster than Earth's average, study finds: "It's widely known that the Earth's average temperature has been rising. But new research finds that spatial patterns of extreme temperature anomalies — readings well above or below the mean — are warming even faster than the overall average. It may seem counterintuitive that global warming would be accompanied by colder winter weather at some locales. But scientists say the observation aligns with theories about climate change, which hold that amplified warming in the Arctic region produces changes in the jet stream, which can result in extended periods of cold weather at some locations in the mid-northern latitudes."

edited 9th Dec '14 8:30:22 PM by rmctagg09

NASA study shows 13-year record of drying Amazon caused vegetation declines: "A 13-year decline in vegetation in the eastern and southeastern Amazon has been linked to a decade-long rainfall decline in the region, a new NASA-funded study finds.

With global climate models projecting further drying over the Amazon in the future, the potential loss of vegetation and the associated loss of carbon storage may speed up global climate change."

Climate change won't dry up Southern California, study finds: "Overall rainfall amounts in the Los Angeles region will remain the same in coming decades, according to a new study that examined the effects of a warming climate on Southern California precipitation.

The third in a series of UCLA studies on the impact of climate change on Los Angeles, the report is good news for the city's efforts to develop more local water supplies.

'The findings of the study are critically important to us,' said Martin Adams, a senior assistant general manager at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. 'If we've got plans to capture local storm water and use it, we have to make sure there is storm water.'"

^ Keep in mind, though, that that study is about rainfall on Southern California, while the California drought problem is very much influenced by rainfall that ends up in the Colorado River, which is a different geographical area◊.

That said, the article does address that the Colorado River's supply is less reliable and the city does want to become more self-reliant. Which is a good thing.