MetaFilter posts tagged with warming and climate

seeing is believing

kliuless — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:45:24 -0800

What global warming looks like - Some amazing time lapse sequences of glacier retreat and a spectacular ice-shelf collapse: BONUS -Freeman Dyson on Charlie Rose -First Comes Global Warming, Then an Evolutionary Explosion -Humpty Dumpty and the Ghosts -Earth's Period of Habitability Is Nearly Over -ICE Satellite Maps Profound Polar Thinning -Four degrees and beyond -Bjørn Lomborg switches tack -Jared Diamond lunch interview -Consumerism is 'eating the future' -Scientists seek global limits on damaging human activities

Climate Change

nola — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 15:59:52 -0800

potholer54 is a youtuber who in his own words; I've been a journalist for 20 years, 14 years as a science correspondent. My degree is in geology, but while working for a science magazine and several science programs I had to tackle a number of different fields, from quantum physics to microbiology. He has a series called Climate Change that you might find interesting. Examines and explains the science of climate change. Then goes on to debunk some common myths

Impermafrost

[expletive deleted] — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:02:52 -0800

"We badly underestimated the degree of damages and the risks of climate change," said Lord Stern in a speech in London yesterday. "All of the links in the chain are on average worse than we thought (pdf) a couple of years ago." NOAA data has revealed that this past march is the 2nd warmest on record, and the warmest on record for both land and the Northern Hemisphere. The most severe and alarming temperature anomaly is in Russia, China and Central Asia, especially East Siberia and the Amur region. Last summer, the East Siberian Sea was the epicenter of the unprecedented Arctic sea ice melt. This year may be little different. Also of significant concern are positive feedbacks from methane released by melting permafrost and possibly clathrate release from the seabed in the same region. The recent fires in Amur Oblast, which was almost 5C warmer than the the 1961-1990 average this March, may also be related to this, and is another example of the kind of positive feedbacks many climate scientists (and Lord Stern) are concerned about.

Bye Hoboken, as you drown in climate-changed caused floods

dabitch — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:57:14 -0800

New Jersey is drowning , or rather it would if the the future as predicted by David Spratty & Philip Sutton in climate code red comes true. Philip Sutton said in an interview that "within five years the Arctic ice in the summertime will be all gone.". With all the ice melting, the waterlevels rise - will your house be under water?

September 2007 polar sea ice anomaly

sergeant sandwich — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:49:59 -0800

Video (8MB, MPEG) of arctic sea ice extent, recorded from January to September 2007. [other formats] This summer a dramatic decrease compared to previous years in the extent of the north pole ice cap was observed. Scientists are freaked out [bugmenot]. This summer, the Northwest Passage was open for a few weeks, allowing three ships to traverse it. This data was taken by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Comparison with past years. More information here.

Climate tipping point

stbalbach — Sun, 13 May 2007 06:15:35 -0800

There has been a measurable "surge" of carbon in the atmosphere for the past 4 or 5 years, nearly doubling the annual rate of the 1970-2000 period, which has mystified scientists because it does not match human trends or known natural causes. A new paper (abstract) suggests we may have reached a tipping point with more greenhouse gases escaping from trees, plants and soils than in the past - hotter and dryer weather caused by high levels of CO2 is creating a feedback loop of unusually strong out-gassings of CO2 from vegetation more inside

Out, damned spots!

unSane — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 07:38:48 -0800

Sunspot activity is closely linked to climate. Although it observes an 11 and 22 year cycle, the overall trend of activity shows much longer term variations. The so-called Maunder Minimum (1645-1715) coincided with the Little Ice Age, while the Medieval Maximum coincided with the Medieval Warm Period. Analysis of beryllium isotopes from ice cores in Greenland shows that sunspot activity is currently at a 1000 year high. Could this account, at least in part, for global warming? Recent data from Mars suggests this may be so, while others remain sceptical. Bonus pix, more here.

Impacts of Climate Change

stbalbach — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 06:37:43 -0800

Impacts of Climate Change, the Potential Impacts to 2050 of a Mid-Upper Greenhouse Gas Emissions Scenario. From Global Business Network.

Flash game: celebrity global warming stars and stinker

jacob hauser — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:13:15 -0800

Is Cate Blanchett a global warming star or stinker? How about Angelina Jolie? Um, George Bush? They got the money and the fame, but are they doing anything good with it, like maybe saving the planet.

How Iraq and climate change threw the right into disarray

stbalbach — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:48:07 -0800

How Iraq and climate change threw the right into disarray.

Fiddling While Rome Burns?

mr. strange — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:37:15 -0800

Can you save the world? This engaging flash game from the BBC lets you try. And it's based on Science! too.

Precipitous Penguin Populations

stbalbach — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:34:14 -0800

Unhappy Feet. Penguin populations around the world are crashing. Biologists are mystified but suspect warmer oceans caused by global warming is reducing available food.

One Degree: global warming channel

stbalbach — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:09:36 -0800

The Weather Channel launches One Degree, a broadband channel dedicated to global warming - for the "weather obsessed", sexy-voiced climatologists Heidi Cullen brings global warming mainstream. Are you a "climatechanger"?

President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming

stbalbach — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 09:18:47 -0800

President Bush is preparing an astonishing U-turn on global warming, senior Washington sources say.

Fair Price Energy: A market-based approach to America’s Energy Crisis

stbalbach — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 08:42:39 -0800

Fair Price Energy. One persons idea for a free market solution to the fossil fuel problem.

amazon drought nearing climate tipping point

stbalbach — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:05:01 -0800

The Amazon rainforest becomes "a desert" after three consecutive years without rain - the trees die. Next year would be the third year of an ongoing drought. The forest contains 90 billion tons of carbon (or about 45 years of stored human emmisions at current rates) - 3/4's of the carbon is released within a year of dieing. The Amazon is "headed in a terrible direction".

Who'll be living where in 25-years?

stbalbach — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 22:34:36 -0800

Who'll be living where. Researchers at the Earth Institute at Columbia University have developed map that projects where people will be living in the year 2025.

It's hot.

stbalbach — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 11:50:51 -0800

Much of the United States currently in a heat wave. First half of 2006 warmest on record in US - Global Warming fuels U.S. forest fires. Global Warming is not going away.

urban jungle

huckhound — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 07:51:17 -0800

the new urban jungle . . . is a growing movement led by cities like San Francisco, New York, and Leiden to restore active and vibrant natural systems in urban areas. Far from the eden-like depictions of nature of yesteryear, i.e. the garden of earthly delights (nonetheless, still attracting some dynamic new christian converts), the movement has morphed into today's backyard and grassroots environmental movement which is more and more a picture of hybridity, compromise, mixed-use, and ultimately, taking nature out of the walled islands of zoos, aquaria, national parks and other thick-walled institutions and offering a different kind of everyday "unmediated" community experience with the new urban wilderness. VIDEO LINK

Global warming: been there, done that, got t-shirt and tan

jfuller — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:20:50 -0800

Mefi-attention-span summary: Arctic ocean was subtropically warm (23C, 73F) and covered with floating vegetation. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels above 2000 parts per million (today = 381 ppm.) Life on Earth did not end, went right on about its business. [For longer attention spans, The Cenozoic palaeoenvironment of the Arctic Ocean (Moran et al.); Climate Change: The Arctic tells its story (Heather Stoll); Subtropical Arctic Ocean temperatures during the Palaeocene/Eocene thermal maximum (Sluijs et al.); Episodic fresh surface waters in the Eocene Arctic Ocean (Brinkhuis et. al);. All from Nature v.441, (01 Jun 2006). Free abstract of Moran et. al; wants money for full texts. Also available for the asking nearest university or public library.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it.

insomnia_lj — Wed, 24 May 2006 02:10:51 -0800

Global warming underestimated by up to 78%. Scientists analyzing historical climate data for Europe have established the existence of a greater-than-anticipated positive feedback mechanism between high temperatures and global carbon dioxide levels. This provides more scientific evidence to support previously-expressed concerns that as global warming intensifies, a chain-reaction of considerably higher temperatures may occur. This corresponds with a new report released by the Australian government, claiming that "there is now perceived to be a greater risk that the upper end of the well known IPCC TAR estimate of a 1.4 to 5.8°C temperature rise will be reached or exceeded by 2100." "Estimates of future warming . . . may have to be raised by about 50 percent."

Flood Maps

stbalbach — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:58:15 -0800

Sea levels are on the rise. Flood Maps mashes up NASA elevation data and Google Maps, and offers a zoomable localized visualization of the effects.

Thin Ice

stbalbach — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 13:19:25 -0800

The Coming Meltdown. The incredible story of Lonnie Thompson - West Virginia conservative, world-class mountaineer, glaciologist, and leading climatologist who first told Congress the world is heating up in 1988, "the moment at which the greenhouse era really began".

Warmest September globally since recording keeping began

stbalbach — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 10:33:50 -0800

No surprise: Warmest September (globally) since record keeping began, according to NOAA, 1.13 degrees above the 1880-2004 long term mean, with land temperatures more than 5 degrees F above normal across large parts of Asia and North America. Ocean temperatures were third highest on record.

Scientists find errors in global warming data.

stbalbach — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 09:34:13 -0800

Scientists find errors in global warming data. Heating from tropical sunlight was skewing temperatures reported by satelite sensors, making nights look as warm as days. The George C. Marshall Institute declined to comment. The group, financed by the petroleum industry, has used the data disparities to dispute the views of global-warming activists. Researchers say it removes a last bastion of scientific doubt about global warming