Futurity.org » climate change

Glaciers shed billions of tons, satellites show

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:47:58 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Ice caps and glaciers outside the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually.

The finding by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder is from the first comprehensive satellite study of the contribution of the world’s melting glaciers and ice caps to global sea level rise.

Tree rings fail to capture climate after volcanos

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:16:11 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change, a new study suggests.

Large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, according to climate researchers who compared tree-ring temperature reconstructions with model simulations of past temperature changes.

“We know these tree rings capture most temperature changes quite well,” says Michael Mann, professor of meteorology and geosciences at Penn State. “But the problem appears to be in their response to the intense short-term cooling that occurs following a very large volcanic eruption.

Experts question: Jellyfish really on the rise?

George Foulsham-UC Santa Barbara — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:02:31 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide are not backed up by any hard evidence or scientific analyses, according to a new study.

Blooms, or proliferation, of jellyfish have shown a substantial, visible impact on coastal populations—clogged nets for fishermen, stinging waters for tourists, even choked intake lines for power plants—and recent media reports have created a perception that the world’s oceans are experiencing increases in jellyfish due to human activities such as global warming and overharvesting of fish.

Sulfate injections may not save the arctic

Vince Stricherz-UW — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:57:50 +0000

U. WASHINGTON (US) — New research shows that injecting sulfate particles into the stratosphere could be a dangerous attempt to fix climate warming.

As the reality and the impact of climate warming have become clearer in the last decade, researchers have looked for possible engineering solutions—such as removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or directing the sun’s heat away from Earth—to help offset rising temperatures.

Restored wetlands may never recover

Robert Sanders-UC Berkeley — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:30:28 +0000

UC BERKELEY (US) — Even after a century of restoration efforts, some wetlands are never able to return to their original natural state.

“Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn’t recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years,” says David Moreno-Mateos, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. “Even after 100 years, the restored wetland is still different from what was there before, and it may never recover.”

Lower emissions, less money, long life?

Richard Ashby-Leeds — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:12:19 +0000

U. LEEDS (UK) — Countries with high incomes and high carbon emissions do not achieve higher life expectancies than those with moderate incomes and lower carbon emissions, a new study finds.

The finding challenges the assumption that human well-being requires growth in both economic activity and carbon emissions.

Ocean sensors gauge pH on global scale

Gail Gallessich-UC Santa Barbara — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:16:53 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — A team of researchers has reported results from the broadest worldwide study of ocean acidification—or pH level—to date.

Acidification is known to be a direct result of the increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The University of California, Santa Barbara, scientists used sensors to measure the acidity of 15 ocean locations, including seawater in the Antarctic and in temperate and tropical waters.

Amazon basin shows signs of stress

George Foulsham-UC Santa Barbara — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:52:22 +0000

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Human land-use activity has begun to change the regional water and energy cycles of parts of the Amazon basin.

A new study published in the journal Nature also shows ongoing interactions of deforestation, fire, and climate change have the potential to alter carbon storage, rainfall patterns, and river discharge on an even larger scale.

Led by scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Woods Hole Research Center, the work involved researchers from 13 Brazilian and U.S. universities, and government and non-governmental organizations. Their investigations produced a framework by which the connections among climate change, agricultural expansion, logging, and fire risk were evaluated.

Climate conflict: Sea level vs. surface temp

A'ndrea Elyse Messer-Penn State — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:17:40 +0000

PENN STATE (US) — Engineering our way out of global climate warming may not be as easy as simply reducing the incoming solar energy, a research team concludes.

Designing the approach to control both sea level rise and rates of surface air temperature changes requires a balancing act to accommodate the diverging needs of different locations.

With less hail, flood risk may rise in Rockies

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:45:00 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — Climate changes may mean summertime hail could disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains by 2070, a new study shows.

While less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods.