Climate july 2010

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

CLIMATE EVENTS

Arctic lowest sea ice extent ever, for month of June 7.6.
Greenland huge ice island calves off glacier 8.11.
Global wheat supply forecast cut 8.12.
Russia ban on grain exports begins 8.19.
Russia probably thousands killed in Moscow by heat 8.17.Russia lashed by storm after heatwave 8.16.
Russia reduces grain harvest forecast 8.9.
Russia hottest summer on record 7.29.
China suffers more heat and rainstorms (August) 8.14.
China floods affect twenty-nine provinces (July) 8.5.
China floods affect nine provinces (June) 6.20.Pakistan the race to save the country's agriculture 8.17.
Pakistan heat spikes to new record at 128 F / 53 C 8.12.
Pakistan floods worst disaster in national history 8.10.
India fatal cloudburst kills 150 in driest place on Earth 8.17.
Niger extreme drought worsens 8.12.Ghana 10 mio affected by drought and famine 7.5.
Ghana head meteo: false alarm; no drought this year 4.14.
Ghana warned to face drought this year 4.14.
Germany floods, again 8.16.
Indonesia reefs die at record rates due to warming seas 8.18.Indonesia tropical mountain glaciers gone by end of the decade 8.16.
Southeast Asia world's "coral triangle" now bleaching out 7.27.
GULF OIL

...BP cover-up of true size of spill continues 8.17.
...70-79 percent of oil spilled is still in water 8.17. (see also here)
...oil lurking beneath surface, settling in Panhandle Canyon 8.17....Gulf sea food not tested for dispersant 8.16.
...freedom of spill research threatened 7.28.
GAIA TRENDS

How the heatwave in Russia is connected to floods in Pakistan 8.12.
WMO warns: unprecedented series of climate events 8.11.
WMO ties Pakistan floods to climate change 8.18.UN warns: mass extinction now worst since 62 mio yrs ago 8.16.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

(three options how to mitigate risks of runaway events)
C Kousky responding to the threat of climate mega-catastrophes
Harvard, Kennedy School of Government 19 Oct 2010

(mangrove forests disappear ever faster)C Giri status and distribution of mangrove forests of the world
Global Ecology & Biogeography 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00584.x

(warming-related cold snaps thwart plant adaptation)
A Jalili climate change, cold waves, and brakes on plant migration
Global Ecology & Biogeography 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00553.x

(mammoths went extinct because of global warming)
J Allen last glacial vegetation in northern Eurasia
Quaternary Science Reviews 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.05.031

(China's soot worsens global warming)
M Ramana warming influenced by the ratio of black carbon
Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 542-543

(positive feedbacks via nitrogen et al worsen climate change)
A Arneth terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system
Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 525-543

(gulf oil isn't gone; it's hovering in the deep)
R Kerr a lot of oil on the loose, not so much to be found
Science 329 (2010): 734-735

(Science special issue on scaling up alternative energy)
Editorial getting better to get bigger (links to papers)
Science 329 (2010): 779

(combination punch could fell rainforests -- cf. New Scientist)
G Asner combined effects of climate and land-use change on the future of humid tropical forests
Conservation Letters doi 10.1111/j.1755-263x.2010.00133x

CLIMATE POLICY

US biggest expansion of coal (!) power in 2 decades 8.17.US Wisconsin Republican to stop high speed rail 8.18.
US Republicans derail cap-and-trade bill 8.5.

CLIMATE MITIGATION

Toyota hybrids lead German enviro ranking 8.18.
German solar city (Freiburg) creates 4 x energy it uses 8.16.
China surges ahead with renewable energy 8.5.
Kyoto targets are impossible to verify 8.13.

CLIMATE DENIERS / AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

... a list of corrupt Republican assholes courtesy of The Grist,
supplemented by Politico

California: Carly Fiorina (R)
Colorado: Ken Buck (R)
Connecticut: Linda MacMahon (R)
Florida 1: Marco Rubio (R)
Florida 2: Rick Scott (R)
Kentucky: Rand Paul (R)
Massachussetts: Charlie Baker (R)
Nevada: Sharron Angle (R)
New Mexico 1: Steve Pearce (R)
New Mexico 2: Susana Martinez (R)
Oklahoma: Jim Inhofe (R)
Pennsylvania: Pat Toomey (R)
Washington: Dino Rossi (R)
Wisconsin: Ron Johnson (R)

BEST GLOBAL WARMING QUOTE

Coal and oil--the real "Axis of Evil" 'in the United States today--present a major challenge in the context of climate change.

D Kennedy (editor emeritus) "Beyond Petroleum?"
Science 329 (2010): 727


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