Anthropogenic Climate Change

Earth's orbit affects the stability of Antarctica's Eastern ice cap: "Scientists have found that there is a direct relation between the changes in the earth's orbit and the stability of the Eastern ice cap of Antarctica, more specifically, on the continental fringe of Wilkes Land (East Antarctica)."

Preventing greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere: "A novel class of materials that enable a safer, cheaper, and more energy-efficient process for removing greenhouse gas from power plant emissions has been developed by a multi-institution team of researchers. The approach could be an important advance in carbon capture and sequestration."

State Department negotiates for the use of Frozen characters for a PSA about climate change.

Somehow, I don't think the deniers are going to let it go.

The government is likely pushing to reach the young, whose opinions can be changed. Probably. Not those already denying. Get 'em while they're young.

You just couldn't hold it back anymore, could you?

Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried.

There's just no right or wrong for you, and no rules.

You didn't care what we were going to say.

Well, now we know.

Shit, I forgot which thread this was (and thus where it was).

edited 6th Feb '15 5:07:29 AM by BestOf

And, this is probably derailing far enough for an OTC thread.

Anyway, it's an interesting idea, though I get where the Disney exec is coming from when he wonders how exactly they could do something like that.

They need to get Jon Cozart in on the deal. Skip to 3:55 to see the part in question.

Farming is now worse for the planet than deforestation: "The good news here is that over the past decade, the amount of trees we've cut down for wood or to clear land has declined. But, unfortunately, the environmental benefits of those improvements are almost being cancelled out by our efforts to feed the world's rapidly growing population, a new study has revealed.

An international team of scientists, led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, has analysed three datasets available from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, and found that, in 2010, agriculture contributed around 11.2 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.

Publishing in Global Change Biology, the team explains that this means it now does more damage, climate change-wise, than deforestation, which for years has been pinpointed as one of the worst environmental activities."

Scientist advances methane sounder to measure another greenhouse gas: "A NASA scientist who has played a key role developing and demonstrating a new technique for gathering around-the-clock global carbon-dioxide (CO2) measurements is applying the same general principles to develop a new laser instrument sensitive to another greenhouse gas—methane.

Haris Riris, a scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will continue advancing the Methane Sounder that operates much like its close cousin, the CO2 Sounder Lidar developed by Riris' close collaborator, Goddard scientist Jim Abshire. The next-generation instrument will be able to provide remotely collected, high-resolution, highly accurate, around-the-clock global methane measurements should it ultimately fly as a spaceborne instrument.

Haris and his team, including Goddard's Kenji Numata and Stewart Wu, will use the new funding to further improve the prototype instrument and then test it during a NASA DC-8 aircraft campaign later this year. The goal is to advance the concept to a point where it perhaps could be flown on a proposed mission, such as NASA's Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Seasons (ASCENDS)."

edited 6th Feb '15 4:03:32 PM by rmctagg09

Warming pushes Western U.S. toward driest period in 1,000 years: Unprecedented risk of drought in 21st century: "During the second half of the 21st century, the US Southwest and Great Plains will face persistent drought worse than anything seen in times ancient or modern, with the drying conditions 'driven primarily' by human-induced global warming, a new study predicts."

More infectious diseases emerging because of climate change: "The appearance of infectious diseases in new places and new hosts, such as West Nile virus and Ebola, is a predictable result of climate change, says a noted zoologist affiliated with the Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

In an article published online today in conjunction with a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Daniel Brooks warns that humans can expect more such illnesses to emerge in the future, as climate change shifts habitats and brings wildlife, crops, livestock, and humans into contact with pathogens to which they are susceptible but to which they have never been exposed before.

'It's not that there's going to be one 'Andromeda Strain' that will wipe everybody out on the planet," Brooks said, referring to the 1971 science fiction film about a deadly pathogen. 'There are going to be a lot of localized outbreaks putting pressure on medical and veterinary health systems. It will be the death of a thousand cuts.'"

New ozone-destroying gases on the rise; not controlled by treaty: "Scientists report that chemicals that are not controlled by a United Nations treaty designed to protect the Ozone Layer are contributing to ozone depletion."

Global warming contrarian researcher investigated for not revealing funding sources: "For several years, aerospace engineer Willie Wei-Hock Soon, with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has been a well known figure in the debate regarding the cause of global warming. While most scientists have maintained that the elevated temperatures are due to increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from man-made processes, such as coal and gasoline burning, Soon has insisted that it is instead caused by normal fluctuations of the sun. Taking such a contrarian view has led to praise from those that support his views, and harsh criticism from those who do not.

Soon is in the spotlight again, this time facing accusations that he has not disclosed funding he has received when publishing research papers. His accusers suggest that he has received most of his funding from energy companies which would constitute a conflict of interest. Most respected journals require the authors of research papers to state in their paper that they report no conflict of interest."

Ocean circulation change: Sea level spiked for two years along Northeastern North America: "Sea levels from New York to Newfoundland jumped up about four inches in 2009 and 2010 because ocean circulation changed. The unusual spike in sea level caused flooding along the northeast coast of North America and was independent of any hurricanes or winter storms. A new article documents that the extreme increase in sea level rise lasted two years, not just a few months."

First direct observation of carbon dioxide's increasing greenhouse effect at Earth's surface: "Scientists have observed an increase in carbon dioxide's greenhouse effect at Earth's surface for the first time. They measured atmospheric carbon dioxide's increasing capacity to absorb thermal radiation emitted from Earth's surface over an 11-year period at two locations in North America. They attributed this upward trend to rising carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel emissions."

Interaction of Atlantic and Pacific oscillations caused 'false pause' in warming: "The recent slowdown in climate warming is due, at least in part, to natural oscillations in the climate, according to a team of climate scientists, who add that these oscillations represent variability internal to the climate system. They do not signal any slowdown in human-caused global warming."

Saving Chilean mummies from climate change: "At least two thousand years before the ancient Egyptians began mummifying their pharaohs, a hunter-gatherer people called the Chinchorro living along the coast of modern-day Chile and Peru developed elaborate methods to mummify not just elites but all types of community members—men, women, children, and even unborn fetuses. Radiocarbon dating as far back as 5050 BC makes them the world's oldest human-made mummies."

East Antarctica melting could be explained by oceanic gateways: "Researchers have discovered two seafloor gateways that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery probably explains the glacier's extreme thinning and raises concerns about how it will affect sea level rise."

More big storms increase tropical rainfall totals: "Increasing rainfall in certain parts of the tropics, colloquially described as the wet get wetter and warm get wetter, has long been a projection of climate change. Now observations have shown that an increase in large thunderstorms is the primary reason for this phenomenon."

Antarctic ice shelves rapidly thinning: "A new study has revealed that the thickness of Antarctica's floating ice shelves has recently decreased by as much as 18 percent in certain areas over nearly two decades, providing new insights on how the Antarctic ice sheet is responding to climate change."

Climate change does not cause extreme winters, experts say: "Cold snaps like the ones that hit the eastern United States in the past winters are not a consequence of climate change. Scientists have now shown that global warming actually tends to reduce temperature variability."

Glimpses of the future: Drought damage leads to widespread forest death: "The 2000-2003 drought in the American southwest triggered a widespread die-off of forests around the region. A team of scientists developed a new modeling tool to explain how and where trembling aspen forests died as a result of this drought, based on damage to the individual trees' ability to transport water. Their results suggest that more widespread die-offs of aspen forests triggered by climate change are likely by the 2050s."

Hopefully this doesn't kill off Pando.

Long-Awaited ‘Jump’ In Global Warming Now Appears ‘Imminent’: "We may be witnessing the start of the long-awaited jump in global temperatures. There is 'a vast and growing body of research,' as Climate Central explained in February. 'Humanity is about to experience a historically unprecedented spike in temperatures.'

A March study, 'Near-term acceleration in the rate of temperature change,' makes clear that an actual acceleration in the rate of global warming is imminent — with Arctic warming rising a stunning 1°F per decade by the 2020s."