Futurity.org » global warming

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.

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.

Climate change may drive vacation plans

Patric Lane-UNC — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 16:24:43 +0000

UNC-CHAPEL HILL (US) — Peak visitation at US national parks is four days earlier on average than 30 years ago, one example of how global warming may be influencing people’s “weather-related” behavior.

A new study published in the International Journal of Biometeorology finds that of nine parks that experienced significant increases in mean spring temperatures since 1979, seven also saw shifts in the timing of peak attendance.

Deforestation’s effects? Location, location

Sylvia Wright-UC Davis — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:40:43 +0000

UC DAVIS (US) — The impact of deforestation on global warming varies with latitude, a finding that calls for revised climate-monitoring strategies, a new study shows.

“It depends where the deforestation is,” says KyawTha Paw U, professor of atmospheric sciences at University of California, Davis. “It could have some cooling effects at the regional scale, at higher latitudes, but there’s no indication deforestation is cooling lower latitudes, and in fact may actually cause warming.”

Methane likely fueled Earth’s big warm-up

Mike Williams-Rice — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:46:00 +0000

RICE (US) — New calculations suggest the release of massive amounts of carbon from methane hydrate frozen under the seafloor 56 million years ago likely led to a major climate shift on Earth.

Nobody knows for sure what started the incident, but there’s no doubt Earth’s temperature rose by as much as 6 degrees Celsius. That affected the planet for up to 150,000 years, until excess carbon in the oceans and atmosphere was reabsorbed into sediment.

In experimental forest, trees soak up CO2

Jim Erickson-Michigan — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:02:43 +0000

U. MICHIGAN (US) — North American forests appear to have a greater capacity to soak up heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas than previously thought.

The results of a 12-year study at an experimental forest in northeastern Wisconsin challenge several long-held assumptions about how future forests will respond to the rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide blamed for human-caused climate change, says Donald Zak, professor of ecology at the University of Michigan.

Downward slide for arctic sea ice

Jim Scott CU-Boulder — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:51:58 +0000

U. COLORADO-BOULDER (US) — The blanket of sea ice that floats on the Arctic Ocean appears to have reached its lowest extent for 2011, the second lowest recorded since satellites began measuring it in 1979.

The Arctic sea ice extent fell to 1.67 million square miles, or 4.33 million square kilometers on Sept. 9, 2011—more than 1 million square miles below the 1979-2000 monthly average extent for September—an area larger than Texas and California combined.

Don’t blame clouds for climate change

Keith Randall-Texas A&M — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:15:13 +0000

TEXAS A&M (US) — Clouds are not the root cause of climate change, but only amplify global warming brought on by human activity, according to a new study.

Decades of data support the mainstream and long-held view that clouds are primarily acting as feedback, says Andrew Dessler, professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.